Only Lovers & Believers, Please: Ars Poetica I
Clearing by this afternoon, and I know you just want
to have a good time. OK, I’ll try
to work with that. Out here in the field, then, with this frontier
we carry around, there’s no difficulty.
It can all be explained:
We’re here in the scrub with our broken hearts
and the insects, and we’re looking for Elvis. Saying
Here’s Elvis, or whatever . . .
Please notify us if you’ve seen him.
And we’re not at all close to completing this thought,
you know, with the bugs and other old tricks.
Rain, even. That we hope for. In the dogwoods.
With only lovers and believers, please.
Understand, we’re not under great stress.
And this is only the beginning; the movement could grow.
It’s all about capturing the subject’s personality and
energy. Over by the dogwoods, as
the sun came out, that might’ve been Elvis
there. But differently. As we’re all
different. Always.
Going around in the great surround.
—John Gallaher