Vox Populi
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Sam Hamill: Of Cascadia (text and video)
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Of Cascadia
I came here nearly forty years ago,
broke and half broken, having chosen
the mud, the dirt road, alder pollen and
a hundred avenues of gray across the sky
to be my teachers and my muses.
I chose a temple made of words and made a vow.
I scratched a life in hardpan. If I cried
for mercy or cried out in delight,
it was because I was a man choosing
carefully his way and his words, growing
as slowly as the trunks of cedars
in the sunlit garden.
Let the ferns and the moss remember
all that I have lost or loved, for I carry
no regrets, no ambition to live it
all again. I can’t make it better
than it’s been or will be again
as the seasons turn and an old man’s heart
turns nostalgic as he sips his wine alone.
I have lived in Cascadia, no paradise
nor any hell, but both at once and made,
as Elytis said, of the same material.
A poor poet, I studied war and love.
But Cascadia is what I’m of.
Email subscribers may click on the title of this post to watch the video.
Copyright 2016 Sam Hamill. From Habitation: Collected Poems by Sam Hamill published by Lost Horse Press. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Video produced by Ian Boyden.
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Sam Hamill (1943-2018)
Vox Populi 
Reblogged this on Site Title and commented:
Another strong voice silent now. How quickly it goes.
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I am no poet, but this is an extremely moving and thought provoking piece.
Thanks to Sam Hamill.
Daniel Burston
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