Poem - Las Vegas
The core images for this piece have been bumping around in my brain since the first time I drove to Las Vegas and was struck with the sheer astonishment of the city and its environs. Going there for the PWFC convention while also doing mini-nanowrimo gave me the impetus to capture a draft (one of my day's quota of words!) Today I revised and finished it.
Many thanks and kudos are due reshcat for critique and enthusiasm.
Las Vegas
What is this place, this city set in arid, empty land?
Spirit made, not grown of rooted earth,
Sprung from human hands, conceived of eager minds.
This structure: sand of lightning fused and formed,
Steel set by sound and fantasy; flash and fury,
Glitter, gold and dreams -
Of fame, of wealth, of wonder: of Otherness here now.
The rock beneath the neon also sings:
Ancient songs of wind and water,
Lightning struck from thunderclouds and stars
That have looked down on every incarnation
Each aspect of this edge of earth:
The drought endured, the flood, the rise and fall
Of mountains, built on weathered bones.
This place is human magic, Will made Form,
And shaping - charging - changing - what is real
By thought and time, all light and fascination
Unanchored to the old, unyielding earth.
No business, right or reverence, and profligate
Of resource - this vitrine habitation;
Yet, withal the dream persists.
Tread wary on these stones:
Both drouth and dreams can kill.
JGT 25 Nov 08
In other news, my hlh_shortcuts story is still growing, and I am contemplating attempting to do a back-up piece Just In Case I can't get this one finished in time. But I also really don't want to lose my focus on this one.
Eeeeeeeee.
Many thanks and kudos are due reshcat for critique and enthusiasm.
Las Vegas
What is this place, this city set in arid, empty land?
Spirit made, not grown of rooted earth,
Sprung from human hands, conceived of eager minds.
This structure: sand of lightning fused and formed,
Steel set by sound and fantasy; flash and fury,
Glitter, gold and dreams -
Of fame, of wealth, of wonder: of Otherness here now.
The rock beneath the neon also sings:
Ancient songs of wind and water,
Lightning struck from thunderclouds and stars
That have looked down on every incarnation
Each aspect of this edge of earth:
The drought endured, the flood, the rise and fall
Of mountains, built on weathered bones.
This place is human magic, Will made Form,
And shaping - charging - changing - what is real
By thought and time, all light and fascination
Unanchored to the old, unyielding earth.
No business, right or reverence, and profligate
Of resource - this vitrine habitation;
Yet, withal the dream persists.
Tread wary on these stones:
Both drouth and dreams can kill.
JGT 25 Nov 08
In other news, my hlh_shortcuts story is still growing, and I am contemplating attempting to do a back-up piece Just In Case I can't get this one finished in time. But I also really don't want to lose my focus on this one.
Eeeeeeeee.