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Bonanza
The March of rains has staked its claim, its boast
_To brag upon these thousand hills,
and opened the sluice of the motherlode
to mantle the slopes in yellow and gold.
_From Tehachapi to the poppied coast,
__meadowlark-loud with whistles and trills,
_Spring’s linen is laid along every road,
_a bounteous feast to have and to hold
_in mind ever more, in memory most
__dispelling the gloom of dark dwelling chills
_and warm to these wonders Wisdom bestowed—
_an ever green gold that never wears old.
_You are the gold that prefigures our Spring
__to brightning bloom, brimming beyond tally,
_indulging each slight, each all anything,
__always da capo, never finale.
Angelic bells hover above and ring,
and your heart replies ever echoing.
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Jonathan Kinsman’s book length poem, ‘Canso of California,’ won the 2006 James Irvine Award for the “Best Narrative Poem about California.” He was the first Laureate to serve two counties simultaneously from 2012-2020. His commentary and poems appeared recently (Jan 2024) in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. He toils in the vineyards of the Lord, aka, 8th grade public school English classes in northern Sacramento Valley.
Fascinating rhyme scheme that cleverly fixates on California golden springs. Yes, I know where Tehachapi is with Golden Hills and Tehachapi hills nearby.
The Italian ” da capo” of musical scores is an inspired insertion that lets us know it is repetitive. Well done.
Thank you Roy, and you are very perceptive even when there is a mistake in the transposing of the poem to our site. Evan is aware of the change in format and I am sure it will be remedied.
The ‘de capo’ and ‘finale’ duo were meant to alert the reader to the poem within the poem: the one that is forever echoing. The second line of the first stanza (and all following stanzas should be indented. The “always de capo’ line is the last indented of the repetitive refrain.
The ‘echo’ after the coda would be:
To brag upon these thousand hills,
meadowlark-loud with whistles and trills,
dispelling the gloom of dark dwelling chills
to brightning bloom, brimming beyond tally ~
always de capo, never finale.
And thank you, Roy, for your keen poetic eye!
Jonathan
Thanks, Jonathan, for the California coloring. I’m impressed by the Golden State words and observations carefully applied here. Although we do have an “ever green gold that never grows old,” it does take the rains to bring it into the open. Good touch to make that first line longer than the others. And appropriate finale (the poem, after all, must have one) of the rarely heard mission bells hovering above and inspiring heartfelt echoes.
Thank you Margaret. Or should I play the plaintiff to your Judgeship with “A Daniel come to judgment”? The late winter and early spring deluge reminds us in this “land of little rain” (nod to Mary Austin) that like the rainbow in Genesis, there is no need to fear the workings of God’s nature.
You also have noticed something about the first line. It is a hinge to the poem that is repeated after the coda. Thank you for that, good Doctor!
The poems I write are full of ‘accidentals on purpose’ (quoting myself, hah!) which in music, especially sonatas, gives the melody depth and lends itself to evocation and echoing in the memory. Or what some German critics coined many decades ago, ‘earworm.’
This is love poem to my wife that uses the description to introduce the metaphor. It is also a poem about the Resurrection and the Supper of the Lamb. Too much Dante Alighieri from Dr Jean-Pierre Barricelli in my Comparative Literature days! Thus the picnic and marriage vow allusions.
I also coined for this poem ‘poppied’ and ‘brightning’ for humor (Wisdom played on the fields of the Lord and was His delight all day) and frankly, there is no other word I can think off to give the visual effect of walking the trails of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve.
We have a beautiful country and a rich a varied topography among the stars of the canton!
The mission bells!! Call to the aubade of the Angelus!!
Thank you Margaret, so much you touch upon in so few words!
Very Nice Jonathan. It is a True love poem in my eyes and heart. And Ode to a Dear Love. Full of love to the beautiful California Countryside. The History of California and The Gold Rush Days. It is Very Pictureesque! Very Profound Images. Bravo Jonathan!
Thank you very much Elizabeth! It is interesting that we remember historical (personal and public) events in a wide net that catches us with vivid images (real and imagined) and connects to our impressions and experiences. I think the best poems do this and that is why I believe as you do: they should be true love poems in our eyes and heart, Thank You Again!
Jonathan
Yes Jonathan! You are Most Welcome!! This Poem is also Anacreontic in that it is a Celebration of Love and Harkens to Poems by Emily Dickinson. It also is very Lyrical. When it is read it is like it is being read aloud by a very renowned Actor. It radiates the warmth that you feel from love.
This is a wonderful piece with an interesting rhyme scheme and a form that appears derived from the Shakespearean sonnet. You paint a beautiful picture of the real California, the California of pioneers and wild, rugged beauty, of gold prospectors that built the state (hence the title) – a far cry from the California that most of us see in the news. I definitely would like to read more of your California poems.
Very perceptive, counselor! Without consciously intending it, I have writing lyrics in the range of 12 to 18 lines with deep sonnetic (love coining words) roots. And as a composer too, I hope you enjoyed my score notation before the last couplet! The ‘de capo’ would be the repetition of the indented lines as they would be the heart ‘ever echoing’ as I mentioned in Roy’s reply, above. I move to amend the pleadings: the transposing of the form of ‘Bonanza’ for the page did not go well.
I have asked the Court (Justice Mantyk) and am still hopeful he will remedy it (Do I sue in Equity?).
As to the underlying theme: I have enjoyed being married to a native girl as I have been the interloper from Alabama, hah! We married as teenagers and spent our honeymoon visiting the southern Missions and historical sites from the Colonial and Gold Rush periods. I try to blend the two in my poems to her: the beauty of the state and the Beauty this Beast has won. I am grateful for your comments.
Jonathan
Jonathan, I love the imagery you use in this piece – the colors, textures, & sounds are so effective! So much fun to read aloud (a few times!) & play around with. I’ve been thinking about this one for a couple days now & returning to it. Such a lovely poem. Nice work. Thank you!
Thank you Gene ! You mention that you read a poem more than once. That is the key to enjoying the whole intent that the poet meant into his or her work: to teach and to delight (thanks Horace old boy).
You must be a musician as well as a poet. I hope further forays into ‘Bonanza’ will uncover an ore of great price!
Jonathan
Elizabeth, well you certainly caught the festiveness of the Superbloom event in our California Spring! If by your compliment you meant this, and I assume you do, you are correct that it celebrates love: between a husband and wife, between a groom (Christ) and His bride (the Church) and a nod to Genesis and the arc in the sky after the Deluge: always hope, always a promise, always here and always now (“in mind ever more, in memory most’).
Thank you for your follow up comments. I am flattered!
Jonathan
Great stuff. That second stanza of Nature’s sights and sounds leaves such a vivid image.
Thanks for the read, Jonathan.