Notchview Poem by Lenny Kates

Notchview

Len Kates
Pittsfield, MA


Ears red, shoulders moving, arms extended by metal tipped poles grabbing into the snow covered trail, aiding the glide, the climb, the movements of the legs, the skis cutting and joining tracks, gliding into the Red Spruce wood and out, to seeing sudden sights of a light blue white sky as rays of sunshine fill the eyes, electrifying the soul, heart, spine and limbs. The body bending happily, turning at the waist line, leaping up and down, suddenly falling sideways, toppling quickly. Strenuously planting both poles right next to the very outer side of the falling-side ski, and pushing strongly back to upright. Arms, rapidly poling, right, left, then ecstatically ski dancing around and around within kaleidoscopic Jackson Pollack images of squirrels dry leaf nests, birch bark peeling, pine needles sprinkled on the paths, deer cloven-hoofed prints in ice and in snow, boulders cloaked with having- been-slowly-melting-then- frozen-in-place-to-melt-again-snow, sounds of wind playing tambourine music with fluttering dry leaves. Now determinedly pushing each pole firmly down, strongly into the snow-covered ground, the body, skied-footed, lifts off and vaults forward in a low arch above the trail, landing, and quickly classically skiing, then purposefully stretching legs far apart, one forward, one back, with that one’s toes bent. Pushing forward, hips Mambo moving, chest out, tail way up, arms rhythmically poling, jaw jutting, neck firmly arched, and eyes, eyes seeing orange- pink-gray hued clouds becoming larger, larger, drifting west to east in a blue-white sky, becoming one’s entire soul. Suddenly lurching, tripping, twisting and affecting body English to unscrew and straighten out one’s body, while simultaneously panting panting panting into catching breaths, into evenly breathing; all this while mellifluously poling, gliding, while hearing one’s whirring sounds, one’s deep breathing sounds, as oxygen’s heating up, energizing body and soul. Now arriving and participating within the mystique of sky and snow covered hills and fields at Notchview.