J.W. Burleson photo / Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

PHB

My photo
Brooklin, Maine, United States
We own a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15 in Maine and a 1986 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 10 in West Texas. Also a pair of 1997 Volvo 850 wagons. Average age in the fleet is 28 years--we're recycling. I've published 3 novels: THE LAW OF DREAMS (2006), THE O'BRIENS (2012), and CARRY ME (2016). Also 2 short story collections: NIGHT DRIVING(1987) and TRAVELLING LIGHT (2013). More of my literary life is at www.peterbehrens.org I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for 2012-13. I'm an adjunct professor at Colorado College and in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. In 2015-16 I was a Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The Autoliterate office is in Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square, 2 floors above Dewey Cheatem & Howe. SUBSCRIBE TO THE AUTOLITERATE DAILY EMAIL by hitting the button to the right.

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Monday, April 29, 2019

"The Road In Is Not The Same As The Road Out", a Karen Solie Poem




THE ROAD IN IS NOT THE SAME ROAD OUT

The perspective is unfamiliar.
We hadn’t looked back going in,
and lingered too long
at the viewpoint. It was a prime-of-life
experience. Many things we know
by their effects: void in the rock
that the river may advance, void
in the river that the fish may advance,
helicopter in the canyon
like a fly in a jar, a mote in the eye,
a wandering cause. It grew dark,
a shift change and a shift
in protocol. To the surface of the road
a trail rose, then a path to the surface
of the trail. The desert
sent its loose rock up to see.
An inaudible catastrophic orchestra
is tuning, we feel it in the air
driven before it, as a pressure
on the brain. In the day
separate rays fall so thickly
from their source we cannot perceive
the gaps between them. But night
is absolute, uniform and self-
derived, the formerly irrelevant
brought to bear, the progress
of its native creatures unimpeded.
We have a plan between us, and then
we have our own. Land of the five
corners, the silent partner, 500 dollars
down, no questions, the rental car
stops at the highway intersection, a filthy
violent storm under the hood. It yields
to traffic from both directions.
It appears it could go either way. 
                                       
                                                              --Karen Solie, from her collection
                                                                The Road In Is Not The Same As The Road Out 
                                                                 Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015

1955 Buick Century wagon

The wagon's up for auction at B-A-T in a few hours.




'68 Camaro. Garden Street, Cambridge Massachusetts.


Sunday, April 28, 2019

Volvo 240 Wagon, West Cambridge MA

 West Cambridge is still an intensely Volvo neighborhood though you don't see many 240s around. XC's up the wazoo. I love the old boxmobiles.





Saturday, April 27, 2019

Friday, April 26, 2019

1988 Pontiac Parisienne

from the poet Eva H.D., in Toronto: "Biking up Clinton Street at (no, really) Crestfallen Lane, I had to circle back against traffic at the sight of three Pontiac Parisiennes (fairly evenly spaced with an interval of a few cars between). What are the chances?
"Because my telephone, no matter how fulsomely-charged, turns itself off in the cold, I had to work quickly, so not great shots a-tall. Wasn't quick enough as I didn't catch the last, a deeply rusted goldybrown number with a GO LEAFS in the rear window and a Club standing guard at the wheel." 
(AL: Here's 1963 Pontiac Parisienne, posted a while back.)




Thursday, April 25, 2019

Volvo 122 NYC



from the poet Eva H.D. :
"Gleaming in New York like nobody's business,
As though the world ain't ending at all."

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Morris Minor, etc. Augusta, Maine

 Shot these through the showroom window, on Hwy 3, (Belfast Road) Augusta ME.
 Don't know exactly which Mercedes Benz SL this is, but it is for sale. No phone number and I can't find a website but the business has been there forevah.

Monday, April 22, 2019

1972 Plymouth Scamp, Maine Turnpike

You can tell from the photos that is has been a damp grey April in Maine, so far. Last snow lifted off our yard yesterday. There has been intense fog all along the downeast coast for much of the last weak. A real peasoup on the road last night, all the way from Belfast to Brooklin.



Friday, April 19, 2019

1958 Oldsmobile Fiesta Super Eighty Eight

American understatement. The swag wagon's for sale at Hemmings. Thanks to Alex Emond for the heads-up