{"id":1686,"date":"2006-12-30T17:38:32","date_gmt":"2006-12-30T22:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/?p=1686"},"modified":"2006-12-30T17:38:32","modified_gmt":"2006-12-30T22:38:32","slug":"too-slow-for-demolition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/2006\/12\/30\/too-slow-for-demolition\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Slow for Demolition"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Michael.\u00c2\u00a0 From a story in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Boston Globe on the Carpenter Poets of Jamaica Plain \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 18 men and one woman — and their weekly Thursday night gathering at Jame\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gate Restaurant to share words on their craft over beers.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font>\u00c2\u00a0
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

Too Slow for Demolition<\/font><\/h1>\n

by William Thibodeau<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/font>\u00c2\u00a0
\n<\/font>These days<\/font><\/p>\n

I still do a bit of the demo work<\/font><\/p>\n

Though I tell myself I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve paid my dues<\/font><\/p>\n

That I prefer construction to destruction \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/font><\/p>\n

Reminding myself that most of what I know<\/font><\/p>\n

About putting things together<\/font><\/p>\n

I learned by taking them apart.<\/font><\/p>\n

Truth is \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just too slow to make it pay.<\/font><\/p>\n

And while I complain, saying:<\/font><\/p>\n

Who needs all that plaster dust in the face \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/font><\/p>\n

The chaos \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/font><\/p>\n

The scramble to get it down and get it gone \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 ?<\/font><\/p>\n

I still find myself wading into that mess.<\/font><\/p>\n

Taking my time<\/font><\/p>\n

I erase the work,<\/font><\/p>\n

Of those who came before me \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/font><\/p>\n

All the detail and sweat<\/font><\/p>\n

By nameless men \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/font><\/p>\n

With their crude tools<\/font><\/p>\n

And materials I still can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t identify.<\/font><\/p>\n

Men who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be dumbstruck to see<\/font><\/p>\n

The tools I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll soon be setting up.<\/font><\/p>\n

I see their spirit in the chalk-white dust<\/font><\/p>\n

I feel their life force vibrating in each cut nail I pull \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/font><\/p>\n

And their hard learned lessons<\/font><\/p>\n

And subtle chiding through the endless splinters<\/font><\/p>\n

That come from that gnarly lath.<\/font><\/p>\n

It all ends up in the truck.<\/font><\/p>\n

And as if facing one of a pair of opposing mirrors<\/font><\/p>\n

Looking at once ahead and behind me<\/font><\/p>\n

Seeing an endless past and future stream \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/font><\/p>\n

No trick of light \u00e2\u20ac\u201c no mere illusion<\/font><\/p>\n

I can see them all on down the line<\/font><\/p>\n

From the Colonial post and beam man<\/font><\/p>\n

To the very one<\/font><\/p>\n

Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll someday strip<\/font><\/p>\n

My own work from this job.<\/font><\/p>\n

Where will I be then \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 ?<\/font><\/p>\n

Will I still be \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 then \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 ?<\/font><\/p>\n

Or will I have become another half-heard voice<\/font><\/p>\n

Murmuring between these rafters and studs?<\/font><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the movement of time<\/font><\/p>\n

The skill of past carpenters<\/font><\/p>\n

And the stories in voices that flow through a steam of generations:<\/font><\/p>\n

(When heard by the pure of heart)<\/font><\/p>\n

Voices that thunder like Brahman<\/font><\/p>\n

Within and without these plastered walls and ceilings<\/font><\/p>\n

That light my eyes and guide my hands.<\/font><\/p>\n

No, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a very good demo man.<\/font><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just too slow.<\/font><\/p>\n

I owe them that much.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Michael.\u00c2\u00a0 From a story in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Boston Globe on the Carpenter Poets of Jamaica Plain \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 18 men and one woman — and their weekly Thursday night gathering at Jame\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gate Restaurant to share words on their craft over … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}