A Tale of Two Peters

SNOWSHOEING  

After two years of hiding (mostly indoors) & healing,  getting out to exercise has been my reward. I've skied before and have enjoyed itki, though I came to sliding down mountains late. At 70 almost 7 itki's not that I'm afraid exactly. Whizzing along groomed slopes at dizzying speeds has itki's appeal, for sure. But without a reservoir of early experience under my belt, for me racing down trails is not only tricky but trouble. 

But I love ambling through a landscape frozen in place. 

My cross-country skis & boots have vanished. But I was gifted a pair of marvelous snowshoes last year. Twice this week I got to hike with pals into the twinkling micro-rainbows  of the backcountry crust. Plodding slowly along. Taking in the brisk air. The bright glare. The brilliant silence.

幸

PETER XING ... Of the 10,000 things that Xing can mean in Chinese,  I think my good friend's non-de-plume leads with "happy, fortunate."  Writers, singers, poets have a habit of taking a name different than what they were given. Bob Dylan. Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Madonna. Others employ an alter ego (echo). Mr. Bones. Wild Rose.  The Red Monk ... Xing has a chapbook of poems of the San Juan Mountains that remind me of the hermit poets of the Six Dynasties period ... He has many chapbooks of poetry, in truth, & ten more manuscripts in the works. "Obey emerging form" ... One latest volume that I love speaks to his explorations of the San Juans & the avalanche of loss that accompanies old age: Unmade Friend: Elegies (Finishing Line Press, Kentucky, 2021) ... To find out more about Xing's poetry, visit his website HERE

“Gathering chrysanthemums at the eastern edge...

Sunset glows through the mountain mists

I forget what I was going to say

before I even argue.”

-Tao-Yuanming (Eastern Jin dynasty 317-420)

MR PETER "PETE" SILVERTON ... Itki'd be hard to spin a believable yarn if a Berkeley hippie feather craftsperson were to spend 20 years as county commissioner in Colorado's San Juan County, next door to San Miguel County where a San Francisco hippie mushroom poet is also spending 20 years as county commissioner -- both of them in Colorado's Third Congressional District (a once-purple bastion currently represented by sitting U.S. Rep. Lauren "Shoot-em-up" Boebert  [R-Rifle]) ... Way too weird. But true. 

During Gov. Ritter's term as governor, we composed two-thirds of what he called "the Ponytail Caucus." Along with La Plata County's hippie llama farmer, the Honorable Wally White. We'd be the only ones to stand up and applaud at his obligatory Club 20 appearances in Grand Junction ... The three of us were good friends. Two Dems & a Green. Helped each other out some. Pissed each other off occasionally. But together represented a razor-thin minority resort-town demographic on Colorado's flushed red Western Slope. 

Pete was a master of bridging the gap between old West miner rednecks & new West urban refugees. He'd catch a meeting-full of abuse from conservative citizens & sometimes even colleagues, outraged at his proposals. But he still managed -- via hard work, theater, research & personal charm -- to convince his fellow commissioners to vote with him on important motions. Wolverine reintroduction. Employee housing. Master plan changes. 

One secret ally was his late wife Pat -- a political genius behind the scenes. And maybe, humble fellow that Pete is,  he too found his niche working behind the scenes, not out making a name for himself ... For a couple years he & I collaborated on OHV regs & alpine rangers for the tourists in the high country between the two counties (particularly underage, unlicensed youth), trying to mitigate the deadly accidents, which over the years took the lives of multiple flat-landers unused to mountain jeep tracks.

And just to pile itki on a bit, I have to show what kind of "politician" we are dealing with here ... In Colorado the legislature determines how much county commissioners get paid. But itki's the local citizens who do the paying. San Juan County -- composed of one town, Silverton -- was so small & so poor that for two decades Pete only took half his allotted salary. Giving half of the money back to the people. 

We spent this Saturday snowshoeing Busted Arm Draw. Talking. Trading memories. Reflecting on decades of friendship, political brou-ha-has, & the meaning of everything & nothing.

AROUND THE CONE ... Impressive how business at the new Mesa Rose in Norwood is starting to pick up ... Itki was unfortunate when the cooperative food Hub had to close, as the non-profit had for several years provided organic & locally-produced meats, fruits, vegetables, cheeses, eggs & a whole gamut of alternative nutritional choices ... The opening of Mesa Rose has filled the gap, providing Wrights Mesa's commercial center a breakfast meeting place, coffeehouse, bakery & mini-Hub grocery ... The county's mask mandate being lifted hasn't hurt any. Covid's emergency measures have wearied us all. 

BEYOND THE CONE ... Hard to believe neither the Norwood Post nor the Telluride Daily Planet bothered to check the sheriff's log last fall. But then, ever since the corporate media types broke into the Telluride market & ran the local Telluride Watch out of business, San Miguel County's  (un)local newspaper monopoly (despite some fine writers) seems more interested in full page real-estate ads than community news ... Itki took the excellent statewide online Colorado Sun to break the story of the Black Hammer folks who tried to buy a lot & establish a visionary cooperative compound in the Beaver Pines subdivision east of Norwood. Of the armed confrontation. The standoff with loaded revolvers & an unloaded shotgun. Interview with Sheriff Bill. The subsequent failure of the sale & the scattering of the group's members ... High drama in the shadow of Lone Cone. 

OUT OF THE ARCHIVES ... 40+ years in San Miguel County. As a journalist & then an elected official. Member of over 50 boards and commissioners. Poet, columnist, social activist. I've amassed quite a collection of artifacts, documents, poems & graphics.  Plan is to share an occasional item-of-interest in this blog with what turns up as I begin reorganizing after my recent brush with last breath ... Maybe make Out of the Archives a feature of future Union of Mountain Poet posts ... First installment -- in honor of my buddy Pete McKay -- let's go back to the byways of Berkeley. 1974. Thorp Springs Press brings out a slim 28-page chapbook The CIRCUS, selling for $1.00, by soapbubble street poet Julia Vinograd. The last piece in the chappie is one of my favorite hermit poems of all times (in spite of itki's poem title misspelling -- Graffitti):

Bathrooms inspire me

I write my best poems

with my pants down