Some New Age

Another poem from Mementoliths (2005). We visited Sedona, on our trip to the national parks of SW USA. It's full of New Age stuff, which I don't believe in, but, hey, it's harmless, mostly, innit? We saw Bell Rock through the lens of an approaching thunderstorm, which released a deluge when we were running about to find somewhere to have lunch. I remember seeing a member of the Solanaceae family, with red fruits like tiny tomatoes on the ends of their stems. I remember the scenery. I have no memory of the lunch. So here's the poem and its geo-intro:

Bell Rock, Sedona

Bell Rock is a singular lump of red sandstone, outside of Sedona, Arizona. Seen from most angles, it appears to be in the shape of a perfect bell. Sedona seems to be the New Age Capital of the USA. There’s a village in Normandy – Villedieu-les-Poeles – where real bells are cast from bell-metal (what else?). The cores are built up from clay, chalk, goat hair and horse dung. I’ve often wondered how the combination was first discovered. Maybe it just struck someone as an obvious thing to try, or maybe it was just whatever happened to be lying about.

Creationers

Route 66 ate the miles in Arizona,

past roadside cinder cones, ashy flows,

wayleave patched in yellow gaillardias

stitched together by blue lupins,

snaking to a straightened Colorado River

in a neck of Nevada.

Bus overtaken

by helmetless bikers,

where blown hair

is as cheap as freedom gets

Sedona’s red Bell Rock blazed in a thunderous morning.

In the dust, little blue flowers, a kind of tomato, sprawled untidily

among the beavertail cactus.

At noon the rain hit, hammered us

into the burger joint. Menu-whipped, we wandered

in and out of shops, unbelieving, staggering

from crystals to tarot, to shaman drums,

all the spiritual fashion accessories

for this New Age. All the easy answers

to the hard questions no-one dares to ask.

Kokopeli’s an omnipresent joker,

a flim-flam, but the real wonder-worker,

Coyote, ’s never seen. Easier

to believe the trappings than the core,

prefer dancer to do-er, decorator

to architect.

Colin Will

31/01/04