Train Poem: 3:15 experiment 8/8/06
i’m on a roll posting train poems for the monday poetry train …this one is also from the 315 experiment
Tuesday August 8, 2006 315am
The train cars crash
into each other on the tracks
It’s unnerving tonight
like it is on my head
sweeping past my cheek
through my ears
out my mouth
across my eyes
until the
house & I
stop shaking
faint rumble of
engines now
try horn of train
now horn now whistle
what do they call
this electronic noise
the engineer makes
any more?
Now steady beep beep beep
something somewhere
warns as it
backs up
breath alternates
first the child’s drawing in then
the father’s blowing out
I was dreaming of James and Jeanne Houston
of their writing of her writing
I was hearing it read in my dream
It was so beautiful elegiac
I wanted to possess these words
I was going to
there was snow
words held fire
they were solid like rocks
I was going to be able
to hold them the words like
stones in my hand
I can feel the weight
of them in my palms
soft grey stones not
unlike dove a soap
a chocolate the words
from one mouth into
anothers you can
suck on a stone
when you need to
for sustenance
for comfort
moth walks up the wall
Its wings flutter a tutu
the baby’s breath
the ocean
this night at 315
the ocean
the ocean
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art predator 
This deserves to be studied further. After I check out the 315 Experiment link, I’ll do just that.
I used to live next to train tracks that got very active after 12:30 at night. All the backing up and crashing got to be like the rhythm of traffic after awhile. I really love these lines:
‘soft grey stones not
unlike dove a soap
a chocolate the words
from one mouth into
anothers you can
suck on a stone
when you need to
for sustenance
for comfort’
Love how you jump from soap to chocolate to stone, then turning the stone into something from which one can get sustenance.
thanks for the comments!
it’s amazing to me how 315 mind works…i’m not sure whether my fully conscious mind would make those leaps…and whether my conscious mind would be willing to accept those leaps… like the rhythm of the train echoing the rhythm of the ocean echoing the rhythm of the breath–i don’t know if i would have seen that right away, and so would have deleted that impulse
this word combination and symbolism is muy powerful:
“words held fire
they were solid like rocks
I was going to be able
to hold them the words like
stones in my hand”
what incredible talent you have darlin.
the image of sucking on a stone is by far my favorite. i also enjoyed the way you captured the full presence of the train, sound, movement and all. good poem.
thanks for the positive responses!!
i just came back from an open mic where i read this poem. the venue is by train tracks and the ocean–you hear both during the readings which is cool on its own but way cool for this poem…