Instagram Poem #12
CSX freight train in East Syracuse, New York. Photo by Francis DiClemente.
A CSX freight train
rushing past me
in East Syracuse.
I step out of my car
and watch it rumble by—
wishing I could
hop aboard
and become a
westbound hobo.
Number 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock
The Feast of Life
Swallow the anguish.
Extract the juice
of this bitter fruit,
and expel the residue
upon the already
splattered canvas.
Train at Night (Shutterstock)
The After-Midnight Express
A train whistle at 12:40 a.m.—
steel wheels screeching against the tracks,
a speeding thunderbolt passing
through Rome, New York,
cloaked by the cover of night,
hauling freight to the West,
or passengers en route
to another town,
while I recline in bed, awake,
traversing a picturesque landscape
inside my head.
Datebook
August 9th, 2000:
This date chosen for no reason.
Just an absurd desire,
serving as a simple reminder,
to stop on occasion,
rewind the clock and remember.
©2017 Francis DiClemente
(Sidewalk Stories, Kelsay Books)
It’s the height of the summer travel season, and I have been on the road often lately, traveling to New York City for video shoots.
And since my colleague Bob prefers to drive our Dodge Caravan, I am free to sit in the passenger seat and pass the time by playing the Out of State Game—one I am sure many other people play.
It goes like this: I scan the traffic in search of out of state license plates, and when I spot one I ask myself a series of questions: Could I live there? Would I be willing to pack up and move there? What would my life be like if I went there?
I guess it boils down to just four words that could determine your level of happiness: Here or There? Stay or Go?
This sense of longing to migrate somewhere else is the subject of a short poem in my new collection Sidewalk Stories.
Elsewhere
Elsewhere—a state of mind:
Reno or Raleigh,
Topeka or Tacoma,
an imaginary vacation
from my current geographic position.
Elsewhere—another place to be,
an alternate zip code.
Elsewhere—when shall I go?
To where shall I roam?
Elsewhere—I’m eager
to embark on the journey,
but the target city is unknown.
Elsewhere is calling—is beckoning,
and I’ve already left home.
In reality I don’t need road trips to ponder these thoughts. I play the Out of State Game every day while walking through the parking lot of my apartment complex, which is home to many college students who come from faraway places.
Some of the states represented include Washington, Oregon, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Indiana.
But there is one plate that always thrills me and sparks my imagination. A white metal background with reddish-orange cursive lettering. California. California. California.
When I see a California plate, I rekindle the dream of relocating to Los Angeles, trying to carve out a living in the film or entertainment business. I consider if I could survive the freeways, earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, crime and high cost of living.
My fascination with California can be traced to my love of John Steinbeck novels and LA-based film noir movies from the 1940s, e.g. The Big Sleep and Double Indemnity.
But the allure of California also stirs memories tinctured with regret, as I think back more than 20 years, to the time after I completed my master’s degree in film and video from American University. In the summer of 1993 I returned to my hometown of Rome, New York, to finish my thesis.
Afterwards I went to work for the City of Rome in the recreation department, doing odd jobs like refereeing adult league volleyball games and teaching an after-school woodworking class. And in the spring and summer of 1994 I served as an administrative aide to the mayor. However, the funding for the temporary job ended in the fall of 1994, and I had decided that I would take about $2,500 in savings, pack up my used gray Chevette and head to Hollywood, hoping to launch my career as a production assistant or entry-level staff member.
My mother rejected that idea, and in the course of an afternoon she and my sister talked me into embarking on an alternate, “safer” plan of moving to Venice, Florida, on the Gulf Coast, where I could stay with a friend of my Aunt Theresa and pursue employment down there.
My Aunt T. is a Roman Catholic nun, and her best friend, the late Father Charlie, a Redemptorist priest, had an extra bedroom in the condo provided for him by the Diocese of Venice. My mom and sister thought that with my endocrine-related health problems, residing in a stable environment near Aunt T. would be preferable to living alone on the West Coast. I folded and scrapped the idea of going to California.
At the time the entertainment industry was burgeoning in the Orlando area, located more than two hours away from Venice, and I was hopeful I could get a job there. But full-time opportunities were scant and when my savings started to drip away, I took a low-paying feature reporter/editor position at the Venice Gondolier newspaper, swinging my career in a different direction, one toward journalism—a path that would bring me to stops in Ohio and Arizona but never to California.
So now when I see a California plate, all I can do is wonder how things could have turned out if I had mustered the courage and gambled on a life in California. Would I now be an accomplished producer, director or studio head? Or would I have ended up impoverished?
I bemoan that I didn’t take the risk when I was young, and while I am not too old to move somewhere else, it’s seems unlikely to happen. But I try to chase away the regret because it serves no purpose and has no place in the 2017 version of my life.
I must accept the decisions I made without wasting time punishing myself by reflecting on what might have been. That’s easy to say, but hard to do because I can’t stop my eyes from seeking out Golden State plates on the streets of Syracuse.
An interview story I wrote about a travel book author and his trip to a remote area of Indonesia appears in the latest issue of Cargo Literary magazine. I connected with the author, Shivaji Das, on the website Goodreads, and I enjoyed learning about his travels, especially since I am positive I will never visit Indonesia. You can read about Shivaji’s trip here.
Working on the story made me realize how much I’ve learned about the world through books, music and movies. It’s pretty sad because although I possess a vagabond spirit, in reality I am afraid to travel far from home.
For example, I’ve never visited Ireland but I aim to go someday. Still, I feel like I’ve soaked up Irish culture by attending Irish music festivals and listening to the sounds of The Pogues, The Elders, The Chieftains, Van Morrison and U2.
I’ve also learned about Irish life by reading James Joyce’s Dubliners, Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes and the poems of W.B. Yeats. And after seeing The Quiet Man, the 1952 film directed by John Ford, I became determined to visit Ireland before I die.
The Quiet Man, 1952
I was enamored by the lush green landscape captured on celluloid and I loved watching the conflict play out between John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara (although my favorite character in the movie is little Michaleen, portrayed by actor Barry Fitzgerald).
Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne
On a similar note, although I am Italian-American, I have not traveled to Italy yet and I can’t speak the language (with the exception of some Americanized profanity I picked up from my maternal grandfather Fiore). Yet I feel I have absorbed a bit of Italian culture through Italian cinema—namely The Bicycle Thief, Umberto D. and Cinema Paradiso, not to mention The Godfather trilogy.
Of course, I would prefer a more immersive travel experience—a chance to meet real Italians and real Irish people, not fictional characters. One day I would like to walk cobblestone streets in a small Irish village, visit some pubs in Dublin, sip coffee at an outdoor café in Rome or take a gondola ride in Venice, etc. But since limited finances and vacation time stand in the way of international travel, it’s good to know I can rely on literary and cinematic substitutes to give me a global perspective.
Francis DiClemente 