‘Traveling through the Dark ‘Traveling through the dark I found a deer dead on the edge ofthe Wikon River road, Wis usally best to roll dhem into the canyon: that road is narrow; to swerve might make wore dead. By glow ofthe tablght 1 stumbled back of the ear sand stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing, she had stilened already, almost col "drag rf se was large In the belly My fingers touching her sce brought me the reson — Ther side was warms he Kaw fay hee wa alive, sti, never ta be born, Beside dhat mountain road I hesitated. ‘The car simed ahead is lowered parking igh tuner the hood purted the steady engine 1 atood inthe glare ofthe warm exit turing red, around our group Leould hear the wlderscs listen | thought hard for us allany only swerving —, then posed her over the edge into the Fier. Weslnesclay nights, late | drive seventy-five mil Coast Range, after teaching an evening clas in Tillamook. ‘Thursday mornings at breakfast my children—Bret, Kim, Ki, Basbara—ash, ‘What di you see las night, Daddy?” And one ‘Thursday morning | found mysel telling them an incident, just, wome over the rom Warren Garier and Paul Binge, ey, Rang Mater Py A htt Anta (New York Sect, Fate 1968, % routine event on that narrow mountain road Amid the sory, While they listened wideyed to Daddys far, late adventure, I realized that the world had offered to me again an event hich could not beheld small: a quick wash of feling signaled forthe children and for me thata poem or story had happened, regard less of whether we wrote it down or called itso, Like Casandra, ‘we felt the pat and the future come to bear onthe present, nd with that triple weight of realization the ereative event had oc- ‘curred, in a fash, without management, jst from helpless par ticipation and then illed assent, a often hefore: an experience unfolds che depth any experience may conceal tilts touched and sprung into its poem or sory. For nothing in life exists without implications, potentials. To live is to traverse landscapes with connotations, to meet people And dhings wich millions of relaues, o find yourself reacting «| anjhing new with all the weight of your past erytalizing ito what i before you. In a sens, any accountyou make becomes a documentary in which you cannot write of tell fast enough + find your way out of Ue story you earry along. My story that “Thursday morning carried ins. mule of influences which hovered and ered for engagement. ‘Watching the children, T saw the account reflected, and saw it come to life. The language cocked their atention—that anieal tanly named, a deer: the dak night, the wild moun- narrow road, the sounel of rushing water; and then— four faithful automobile. And standing in that emergeney, far from their sleeping selves— thelr father, ata loss, confronting a famed, stopped, meaningful picture. With a Jolt we felt the usually disguised imminenee of frst and lst ching. TK would be posible t9 trace the decisions in the writing of this already formed poem—the lines, he insistent parcehymes. ‘There were decisions forced on the writer, inherentin the mean. Jing, such asthe need for absolute confrontations early—"deud,” “Ulin,” “siened," eold”—asa frm asertion of what must be faced without swerving atthe end. There were dtcoveres, for instance that dhe alight makes ated cloud in the cold night as the steady exhaust signals readiness There area hest of partic pating deals begging to enter the poem, but there i also the hes writer and doer ofthe action, afraid wo blur what he wssimpse, awkwardly selecting one part at « me and counting fn the hearer to parcpate where distractions might threaten whatever potential dere fin the minim cling ‘Once a poem ike this is started, there are many ways to lens and there are a myriad of muances tobe accepted by the writer or wo be erificed. But what looms auch doce tary is that the main eect depends on concurrence of event and implications. Writing the poem becomes «proces of dcner ing wha elements contribute adequately w the diineon of the erent—this time such clements asthe lone ieling. the darkness, the soft animal, the road that ed onward. My ison 8 poet was simpy t tell others how it wast rave hat oad their learning about my experience they would be reading buck from the event into the many apects of Ueir own experience ‘ich were shadowed forth bythe very simple of my cous ter. Almost any reaction Thad —in local psc way the experience with the deer woul deliver forthe reader some: thing of the loneliness and the minim scope for aetion we all have In extreme tations Two other considerations deserve empha naccoxmtng for this poem. The first i ha telling It eat frm the ont in Simply delivering how it was oad there In the dak wih the dee; not til de account ook shape 1 become aware of ater which could be identified as symboie. My fis impulse ‘as toward martes once Law the parallels looming along that narrative thread di notdleny nor ty toad them, at my only ‘guide the telling waste groper hawutsws The ther comer ton isabout form, andin aaensc about wordig—abou ines Sying the verbal voage ofthe poem: much ofthe slasehel, the soundseinforeement aves wlth the thought the telling ‘bat any regarzing ofthe pattern (cond an fourth ines with near rhyme, for instance) comes fom find of nondespente ‘ven confident juggling, Al such decisions offer themes to the writer, and he ean welcome gains and give up cease Fices wth analmot ele feling of consertion--a proces diferent fom the more adventaois and hazards fel ofthe firs telling. the discovery ofthe main narrative. ‘This kind of poem isa sure hind, Ie ay not be spectacular, Dut it can alvays poses the valid of reporting someting. I 3 ; ‘an be intensified in the writing, but its most signifcane value ‘derives from the relevance and the penasivenessof tasa meta: phor iit eatches many experiences in its patzern, ican be very Powerful. One may be sruck at anytime by this Kind of ghosly Accompaniment, the symbolic reinforcing iaherent in the Way ‘we ave to think, and inherent in the language our past offersus when we use i for today’s purposes. ven afler telling the sory of traveling through the dark 1 cannot id mytelf of ts hold over me, nor could | that Thursday morning, as I pushed the children—Bret, Kim, Kit, Barbara— ‘out on thee road to school, and then went on my own way 10 Work, where had wo be, ready for the next encounter, the next poem, and 30 on... e WS,