Richard A. Marten 

Corona, California, USA 

  
 
 

Richard is retired from the aerospace/defense field, and has recently completed a manuscript on an extended exceptional human experience. A World War II aerial navigator, Richard immersed himself in the human potential movement of the 1960's, especially with the work of G. I. Gurdjieff. Schooling was in meteorology and engineering. From the 1960's to the 1980's, Richard utilized spare time to do research in weather modification.
Click here to listen to Kaaterskill Junction, NY
Click here to listen to Rain On The City

Kaaterskill Junction, NY

Come aboard, lad, - 
solitary fan club to surrogate fireman; 
trip of a lifetime! 
The port side seat of the bowlegged, 
rollicking, unicorn switcher; 
tenor clanking in heavy heat; 
trestle thumping on skinny splines; 
pattern stenciling a meandering creek 
ahead to the switch; a sidle to the siding. 

Big Iron headlight-piercing the icy night 
windy wailing down double rails a 
taffy-pulling 'round mountain passes, 
caterpillaring through helical wisps 
of gauzy white --- ri-tar-dan-do. 
Big Iron speaks 'cross the decades: 
Ahoy, pal switcher! 
Who's that twelve-year-old? 

Overlays of boyhood summer days, 
strata of cold winter nights become; 
rails --- converge to junctions, 
the Kaaterskill is one; coal cinders 
dance again across the spikèd ties 
to twirl their tarry partners, 
creosote balm arise, binary sensed, 
--- into moonlit skies.

Rain On The City

Bedroom shade eyelids part 
To tearful, glassy corneas 
Antiseptically backwashed 
O'er the city's retina. 
Teek 'n tock, tock 'n teek, 
Atonal splash, metronomic beat: 
Musty, woodsy rain smell 
Inhabits this smaller world. 

Lonely mind-sets flicker by, 
Hurried and tense; 
Dwarfed by gaunt, concreted spire heads 
Mocking with belligerence. 

Pulsating skin of a breathing sea; 
Rain-pricked 
As a buckshotted crocodile. 
Corneal aqueous humor, 
Tympanic with earshot repartee 
Of foghorn sentries challenging 
The proudly bellowing announcements 
Of ocean liners cutting the water.
All poems Copyright © 1997 Richard A. Marten. All rights reserved.