The Platters

 

THE OPEN ROAD

peace, love, happiness & understanding

 

September 17, 2020

 

It’s smoky. For the past week, Portland has had the worst air quality of any major city on the planet. And there’s a lot of competition! But, for now, our air is worse than the air in Delhi, India or Shanghai, China. Nancy and I have been joking about meeting in smoky places, like in the song by the Corsairs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGDvR-7ughY). And then, of course, there’s the Platters’ hit: “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2di83WAOhU). And we can’t forget Smokey Robinson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv9cWgkpIZ4). My friend Nick Eldredge is a fan of Smokey Stover. Notary sojack.

 

Aaron Gilbert wrote that he has been fighting fires. Kim Stafford sent me an email on Monday:

 

This morning early, reading about inmates on the fire lines, it came to this.

 

                     Inmate Fights Fire 

 

When it gets really bad, they want me out—out there

on that fire-line, sweating sparks, staring down flames

I look up to as I dig like some fiend. Dollar an hour

to be a crispy critter to save somebody’s home. Yeah, they

figure the same jinx of brave and stupid got me convicted

might make me right to stand my ground for fire. 

 

Like these boots? Like this hickory handle I flick

back and forth so my shovel slashes dirt, leaves

no food fire can eat? I like leaning back to see

that red sun staring through these skeleton trees

like bars in my cellblock window. And the wind

brings me smoke for free. Free? 

 

When my sentence ends, you think I’ll walk free?

You think they’ll look at me to say, “He’s good”?

They plot their own fire-line to keep me on the dark side.

Got it? Like my face tattoo says “Bad Man. Don’t Hire.”

You can walk out the prison gate, but try walking through

the reputation wall to freedom after they call you felon. 

 

I served my time. Serious good behavior. And after?

Give me a chance. Or shall I say, I’ve been burned.

 

—Kim Stafford

*

 

Part of that poem reminded me of Randall Brown’s song “One Second Chance.” I met Randall in the Arts In Prison group at Columbia River Correctional Institution. At one point in his life he was living in Nashville and earning his living writing songs. Just as Kim adopted a persona for his poem, Randall, who never imagined he would actually go to prison, wrote a song about a guy who has just gotten out of prison. Here are the lyrics:

 

It says here you’re from Houston

And you’re certified to drive a truck

But it doesn’t say what you’ve been doin’

For the last five years

Then he watched his eyes keep readin’

Then he watched his eyes look up

And he watched another job he needed just disappear

 

‘Cause when they get to the line

Have you been convicted of a crime

They say thanks for comin’ and they don’t call you back

I ain’t askin’ for every job under the sun

I just want one

Second chance

 

On August 22nd 

Little Jacob’s turnin’ nine

But his momma moved him

A half a state away

I left another message

On her phone at home last night

And she finally had her lawyer

Call today

 

She knows he can’t afford 

To take this thing to court

And I’m tryin’ hard to make her understand

I’m not askin’ for every weekend of every month

I just want one

Second chance

 

I was young and I was stupid

I regret it everyday

I ain’t saying I didn’t do it

But I’ve paid for my mistakes

It’s a lost and empty feeling when they don’t want you around

I’ve finally got my freedom but what good is it now

 

There’s some day’s when it feels like it’s been a 100 years

Sometimes it seems like only yesterday

We were painting Jacob’s nursery

Counting days until he was here

Next thing I knew I’d thrown it all away

Now I know I can’t go back

To the life I used to have

When I still held the whole world in my hands

I had a job I had a wife I had a son

Now I just want one

Second chance

 

—Randall Brown

*

Randall says: 

 

I’ve been out almost 2 years. My current job is foreman for a construction company. I’ve just accepted a position as an operations manager for a commercial construction company in Portland. 

When I got out I was nervous because of the stigma we get as inmates. But my reentry to society went great. I was able to find work within a few days. I did get divorced while in, but I’ve found a woman who accepts me for me and not my past. 

*

 

Thinking about smoke and fires, I naturally thought of Gary Snyder’s “Smokey the Bear Sutra”:

 

SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA

 

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings–even the grasses, to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

“In some future time, there will be a continent called America. It will have great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur, Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature.”

“The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it.”

And he showed himself in his true form of

SMOKEY THE BEAR

     A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.

     Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;

     His left paw in the mudra of Comradely Display–indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that of deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;

     Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys;

     Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the west, symbolic of the forces that guard the wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the true path of man on Earth: all true paths lead through mountains—

     With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;

     Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;

     Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs, smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism;

     Indicating the task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes, master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.

Wrathful but calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him…

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.

Thus his great Mantra:

     Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana 

     Sphataya hum traka ham mam

     “I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND 

     BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED”

And he will protect those who love the woods and rivers, Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children:

And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television, or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR’S WAR SPELL:

DROWN THEIR BUTTS

CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

DROWN THEIR BUTTS

CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel.

Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.

 

Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.

Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.

Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.

Will always have ripened blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.

 

AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT

thus we have heard.

 

(may be reproduced free forever) 

 

—Gary Snyder

*

That reminds me of a joke…

 

What do Alexander the Great and Smokey the Bear have in common?

Same middle name.

 

And now it’s time to sing along to the Smokey the Bear Song with Eddy Arnold:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myz93sXW66Y

 

peace & love

 

—Johnny