BURRO
ADDRESS
by Adrienne Knute |
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Sixty months and one year ago
our leaders brought forth a new meat - marinated in wines and dedicated it to
the members and divided the portions up equal.
Now we are faced with
the prospect of eating it, testing whether this meat, or any meat so marinated
and so barbecued, can long satisfy. We are met on a great desert for this test.
We have come to eat portions of this meat and have made a final resting place
for this animal who gave his life that the DPS might party. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we
should not party, we should not revel, we should not feast on this ground-the
burros who have lived here have left their mark far above our poor power to
reduce their ranks. The world will little note nor long remember what we eat
here, but it will never forget the damage they've done here.
It is for
us, the DPS, rather to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that
from this barbecued beast we take increased devotion to the cause for which he
died - Burro
 Relocation. That we here highly resolve that this burro shall not
have died in vain - that this group, led by Ron, shall have a new purpose. A
purpose of the DPS, for the DPS. and by the DPS. That the burros shall forever
leave the desert. |
| The
Mystic Order |
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|
Far from the
city, beyond the urban sprawl,
Responding to the trip sheet, responding to
the call
of guitars and coyotes, of peaks and hot springs too,
You'll
find us desert peakers, beneath the sky so blue.
We hike the wide world
over, Vida1 Junction to Karthmandu,
Learning Indian cultures, Papago to old
Hindu.
The songs we sing are special, though they may not always
rhythme,
At almost every campfire, we hear Lucille and Summertime.
The rituals, so secret, unfold as hikes proceed,
We follow leaders
blindly, wherever dirt roads lead.
The conquest of the Rabbit, the challenge
of the Rat test,
partaking of the sacred deer, of course the very
fattest.
Like Sufi saints in other desert kingdoms,
We drink and
dream throughout the star-filled nights
of stronger bodies, longer Lives,
companions true,
and peaks unclimbed to take us to new heights. |
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|
THE SIXTH ANNUAL (and probably last)
ARGUS
PEAK CLIMB AND DESERT BARBECUE!!! |
|
Can we forget
this last Argus Peak climb?
How to equate the desert mountain pass
with a
slice of burro---a piece of ass.
Ma, it linger for us til' the end of
time.
Here---where the lonely sunsets flair forlorn
down valleys
dreadly desolate!
The lordly mountain soars in scorn
as still as death,
as stern as fate.
The lonely sunsets flame and die;
the Giant
valleys gulp the night;
The monster mountain scrapes the sky,
where
eager stars are diamond-bright.
Then still against the gibbous
moon,
piercing the silence velvet-piled,
a lone burro brays his ancient
rune-- the fell arch-spirit of the Wild.
This burro - wild and lonely
as his place, strolls nameless through the sage; It could be Agness, Tom or
Grace,
but it's really Caesar, named for the age.
But is he
noble--of roval birth?
Does he have title-for us to greet him?
Perhaps
his prowess should fill the earth,
But I came not to praise Caesar, but to
eat him.
Here's a land where the mountains are nameless,
and the
rivers run God knows where;
Here are lives that are erring and aimless, and
deaths that just hang by a hair;
Here are hardships that nobody
reckons;
and valleys unpeopled and still;
Here's a land--oh, it beckons
and beckons,
and I want to come back.--and I will. |
]
| Lou Brecheen<>
4/20/85 |
(With lots of
help
from Robert Service) |
|
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ARGUS PEAK
"POEM" BY CAROLYN MAY WEST
And so they came
By two, by threes, five
at once?
By car and truck and van.
At last, some 60 strong.
What
could lure these folk,
Down twisting lanes of sand
With stickery brush to
hard mat beds?
Away from asphalt, conveniences, and shover bath heavens?
The lure is the greatest tale of them all
Everyone has heard it over the
past 5 years. The same thing brought out the 49ers To suffer, blister, loose
their sanity.
Yes, there is gold in them hills at the end of the
road.
I too heard the tale
And couldn't stay away.
I just knew this
was my last chance.
So, here I am. |
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