Lauren Camp honors the creative accomplishments of a California man who also happened to be an illiterate immigrant.
—
Sailing the Distance
Simon Rodia, Watts Towers, mixed media, dimensions variable, 1921-1954, south Los Angeles, CA
After a rainstorm, after sun, the air was scarred with coordinates. When the horizon
settled, blue accumulated in Simon’s small eyes. To build a curve: railroad tracks &
dust. A sail: cement & steel. Where he drew a ladder, the sky was ringed, embedded
with a clutter of tile & crackles. He climbed, wrinkling, & built another crown in a
wedge of Watts cornered between sermons & knuckles of labor. No one said rung
or strut. No word for rivet or bolt. Just the distance from faucet handle to soda pop
glass. One stone & mirror clasped by concrete, then another. Reclusive hues hurtled
& touched. Simon listened to the dull rattle of strangers stalled on street corners,
sweaty & drifting, as every afternoon he attached color to the ceiling of heaven. A
traveler lost in the distance, he tucked footprints into the path. He sailed the
language of ocean & persistence. Tobacco stained his mouth & emerged as breath, &
he knelt in the alcove, fingers textured with a constellation of crushed gems found on
the tracks. He glued figments of beauty in the triangular yard, the illiterate man, with
a clear view of long waves.
***
First published in The Pedestal Magazine.
Read more of Lauren Camp’s poetry. Also, check out this other poem on Simon Rodia and the Watts Towers from William Kelley Woolfitt.
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Photo by Megan Westerby/Flickr