Thursday, September 7, 1995
Montana Journal: flying over Mount Diablo enroute to Helena
Flying over Mount Diablo enroute to Salt Lake City and Helena, Montana, for the Montana Arts Council meeting. The Mormon Tabernacle shines in the Oakland Hills, like a crystal palace.
I stock up on chocolate and drink a double latte because my next stop is a long layover in Salt Lake City, the idea no alcohol, no caffeine, or chocolate suddenly has me craving all the necessities at once. A good thing sex isn't banned. I'd have to join the mile-high club, then.
The coastal mountain, Mt. Diablo rises up 4000 feet from sea level, with impressive girth. We're flying over the Oroville Dam, and the Feather River, crossing the Sierras, they are like unsheathed knives slicing the sky. I can see Mono Lake, and Buck's Lake.
There's a fire burning in the Sierras. The canyons to the south are filled with smoke. Looks like King's Canyon. In vain I search for Yosemite. What is that next deep canyon below Oroville?
Mono Lake has numerous ancient, and a few not so ancient, shorelines. They're like stair steps leading down to a jeweled eye. Once it was double its present size, and steamers crossed it. Flocks of birds blotted out the sun. An ancient lake, drained by Los Angeles' water lust. Dying slowly, inch by inch. The eye of the desert is disappearing like the Aral Sea.
The block fault mountains of Nevada's Humboldt Basin give way to the snowy Rockies. And the Great Salt Lake. More ancient shorelines. Bonneville Salt Flats looks like a field of snow. I don't know if I like clouds more from above or below. Magnificent either way. I can see them reflecting in the lake. As above, so below.
We descend to the Great Salt Lake, the plane kicking like a mule in the turbulence, shafts of sunlight, and dark shadows divide the ground into patterns.
I run into fellow CPITS poets Darryl Chinn from Arcata, and Susie Terence from San Francisco, in the terminal. We laugh. We're all three going to be Montana Arts Council artists in residence, how cool is that?
September 7, 1995
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