Partly Paved, doubly illustrated by Joyce Shon and James B. Wheeler


The dynamic duo, Joyce Shon and James B. Wheeler, collaborated on this pair of illustration versions. I don't know which to prefer, so am posting both. If you have an inkling toward one or the other, please comment and let me know. Enjoy!
 
 ***


Partly paved


Where the road stopped, an old train track,
half-lost, crossed my trail's T. One way
pointed into town. It struck me
that I'd noticed the brown steel paved
into 3rd Street, the lot at Jack’s,

and many spots where the railway
ran before the brambles of town
grew on it. The opposite ray
of vanishing track bent around
an overgrown, unbuilt hillock.

I went that way. Threadbare green gowns,
dappled silences, and old-time
ponderings filled the afternoon
until evening. Until the ties
stopped their ladder steps where I'd strayed.

What color were the northern skies
those days when coffee cost a dime?
 
By Joyce Shon and James B. Wheeler

Likewise by Joyce Shon and James B. Wheeler

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 15, 2013 at 11:09 AM

    For Partly Paved, I definitely prefer the more spare second picture rendering; that one seems more fitting to the feelings in the poem, which are the same ones I've had when seeing old paved over street car tracks and remembering "the old days when."

    ReplyDelete
  2. InaApril 15, 2013 at 11:30 AM

    This is a gorgeous poem Daniel - so beautiful. And I'm with Gerald here - I think the second, more spare feeling, illustration is the way to go.

    ReplyDelete

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