Texas Platters

Bonfire of Roadmaps

by Joe Ely

University of Texas Press, 194 pp., $19.95

In the closing stanzas of Joe Ely's Bonfire of Roadmaps, a collection of poems and drawings culled from the traveling journals of Austin's Lord of the Highway, he writes from the Flatlanders' 2002 tour: "How blessed we are to have the luxury to rejoice among friends in the camaraderie of the moment. To howl freely without restraint down the road to nowhere, unbound by ambition, but bound for Glory." Indeed, the nine career-spanning poems presented in Bonfire echo a beat "Howl," with Ely, who turned 60 in February, channeling Ginsberg by way of Guthrie in a celebration of the wonder and weariness of the road, anecdotes and snapshots passing by like blurred scenery from a rumbling freight car. While the poetry, often rambling in unrestrained quatrains, is generally unremarkable, it gathers import from personal insight, especially from the accompanying CD of Ely reading "52 Cities Till Christmas," his voice gritty yet joyful. Most impressive is Ely's singularity of vision that drives with the same excitement today as in his 1972 poem "Iron Rhinos": "There are no answers for gypsies who question," ponders the young Ely parabolically, "and no good reason for any destination other than living in the present." (Joe Ely performs from his latest CD and signs books for Borders at the Domain, Saturday, April 7, 11am.)