The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

The Dan Patch Express

ran behind the school yard,
the backs of bleachers, track and field
on the other side.

Even then, trains no longer whistled steam,
the engineer laid on his diesel horn.

We watched to see if this time he'd wave
ahead of stop action sprocket drive
that suspended in unreal space,
high school football practice seen
between the line of boxcars rushing past,

headed for Savage, Minnesota
where barns and training track
once housed the greatest record-breaker
sulky racer for whom the train was named.

http://www.danpatch.com/dan-patch.html

Reply

Interesting bit of Americana. Enjoyed.
 

Thank you Mark for the read on both poems and additional information. I'm jotting off a quick response as we are battening down the hatches for an unheard-of weather event here in San Diego. A hurricane with all kinds of dire warnings including massive power failures. I am scheduled to fly out Wed. to be with family--I need to warn them my flight might cancel. 

My trip home to Minnesota turned me to the Minnesota horse, town of Savage where we built our first house in 1963 and the fair I'll be spending time at.

Hope the info helps. Weather sounds hectic. I see Dane Wigington has a post up on YT about your Hurricane Hilary: are you familiar with his work? Interesting stuff.

Nostalgia is sometimes like finding a faded and forgotten photograph with the corners curled in silent echoes of laughter.  

Love the poem and its simplicity and clarity. Good luck with weather in all its magic and horror.

Seems like the hurricane is ancient history. We were battened down really well and came through fine. There are worse things to worry about now. Thank you Mark and Dave for your always valued comments.

Dan Patch--I grew up holding him, at the instance of the authority of my father, in the same regard as Joe Luis and Honus Wagner. 

I enjoy all the memories loosely tethered to the threads of this poem. 

How interesting and compelling is the image of the high school football practice flashing in the background  of the moving train!

My nit is with the word "beyond" in the first line. If we are seeing this from N's POV, then that word would place N looking at the train through the bleachers from the field.  If N is seeing the practice field through the spaces between the train cars, then the track is in front of the back of the bleachers, not beyond.  I am not sure if I have explained this clearly?