Saturday Good Reads: The Swollen Road Collective

A few years back, D.C. Lutz had an epiphany of sorts. He heard his young son tell his mother that his heart was “glowing green.” Lutz realized that his own heart had not been glowing any color for some time, and so he created a way to do that.

That way is the Swollen Road Collective.

The Collective is poetry, photography, and “anything in between.” Lutz travels a lot of back roads, and his poetic eye is interchangeable with his photographic eye. Consider the visual qualities of this poem, “Red Hair and Clouds:”

The red haired woman talks to her heart

As if it really cares that she is weak

     And in need of wheels, and water

She dismisses the truth

     That we will soon see clouds

Life will name them for us, tell us what they mean

My younger father,

He will tell us what they are saying

And we will pretend to understand, as to not disappoint

But it is the clouds that will be disappointed,

Not my father

Red’s wheels will be just fine

As far as us, I think so too.

I’ve been following the Swollen Road Collective for some time, and I don’t remember how I first discovered it. Likely it was the poetry. Lutz doesn’t post daily, but when he does, it’s always worth reading, and always worth considering.

And, yes, I think his heart is glowing colors now.

Photograph: Fencing, by D.C. Lutz at The Swollen Road Collective.