Shall I write about my fallow month?
Spent watching television.
Write about dreaming my life ahead of me
Creating the next recording
And routing another tour

Of knowing my songs
And playing them again and again
For myself
For pleasure only

Shall I write about spending these weeks
Tearing down and painting walls: house renovation for money
To make ends meet.

Shall I write about what I've been reading
About building the transcontinental railroad
Of dual strands of Pennsylvania iron put down upon the earth
And men, long, long gone, who slept in bunks hundreds to the car
Between Fort Kearney, Cheyenne, Rawlins, and Green River
Where wind across the plains grasses sound like the ocean
They sang "Paddy on the railroad"
Veterans of the North and South side by side
Their bare hands rested before the suns rotation
And the pounding of another days labor
And about the Chinese
Who crossed the Pacific
Who drilled and blasted their way east through the Sierra
Through granite and prejudice
Who saved their money and persevered
Who returned to China wealthy

A night owl with wine and guitar
I lay my own dual tracks
And punch the clock at 8am the very morning same
This month I spend anticipating the road.

I think on the wind in the forest that crashes in waves
That wind and that forest that I know
Are nearly a thousand miles north of here
The thick, hardwoods of Vermont sound like water
I don't know what Carolina forests sound like yet
The pine of this sandy soil too faint to hear
I have not been here long enough to recognize the song
My own roots not yet deep enough to meet
Those piney roots

My fallow month this January
When water flows underground

Hi folks, Happy New Year, and thanks for your reading. I go back out on tour soon, so I'd love to see you at a show. Take a look at the schedule page and tell your friends. Please keep in touch. The guestbook has been down lately, but don't hesitate to send an e-mail to robinsongs@aol.com if you have something to say.

All the best - Dana