Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0704091154390.26435@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: leaving the Valley
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 11:55:12 -0400 (EDT)
leaving the Valley through wyoming exeter forty-fort kingston wilkes-barre towards blakeslee through and out of Wyoming Valley sped to 300 miles an hour - where i grew up surrounded by the blue-gray mountains of pennsylvania - you couldn't see very far in any direction - something like west virginia - you've got no viewpoint - you're trapped in the Valley - the roads wind long through it - you leave up and out along the five mile hill - then 19 miles to blakeslee in the poconos - it's always dark - always raining - there's coal in the mountains - anthracite - strip-mining but not mountain-topping - mines were deep and dangerous - the five mile hill was dangerous - trucks would lose control - crash into wilkes-barre at ninety miles an hour - plow through houses - taking out everything in their path - for years they worked at taming the hill - now there are runaway truck roads - they go on up there - you can usually see tire marks - furrows - nothing gets down into the town any more - but we're going out of the town and up the hill - then through the mountains to blakeslee - first through the Valley past the airport - there were turkey vultures there - the first i've seen in eastern pennsylvania - the first i've seen in pennsylvania - they're moving in - on the landing strip - paid no attention to the planes - down past the dikes around forty-fort - named for the forty settlers who first arrived - the area has a long history - wars were fought - lot of people died - the susquehanna's held back by the dikes - floods anyway - the cemetery - you can just make it out at 300 mph - cemetery lost a lot of coffins - they floated down the river in 1972 - our house flooded as well - we saw eleven herons in the area a year ago - the area's aging now - lots of people left - mainly young people - the mines are closed - flooded out in 1959 - land subsidance - our house cracked in two - we're leaving at 300 miles per hour - we're on our way - we're gone - http://www.asondheim.org/valleyspeed.mp4