Truckin' Poetry by Dave Madill

One trucker who’s described many beautiful scenes in nature, as well as the not-so-beautiful sides to mankind is Dave Madill. His first published book of poetry, Reflections Thru My Windshield Part 1, 2005, showed his thoughts and his wonder at the complexities of the modern world. The tender love poems to his wife, and the funny vignettes of other people from cafés and truck stops along the way are all part of Dave’s word sketches, much like what other artists would portray in pastel or pencil. He writes from his heart and straight into his readers’ feelings. As a long-haul Canadian trucker, he crossed the continent more times than he could count, always delivering his loads and collecting more stories to set into rhyme.

While you may not have noticed, April is National Poetry Month. So here are some samples of poetry that’s completely different from what you were forced to read in school.

From Reflections thru My Windshield Part 1

Partners

Two big rigs in the darkness
running hard through the night,

Headlights burning brightly
cut a tunnel through the night,

Two drivers, each in their cabs,
a father and a son,

Thunder down the highway
on another midnight run.

A father shares his wisdom:
thirty years out on the road,

Teach another generation
how to haul  the heavy loads.

A different type of bonding
between this father and his son,

A partnership in diesel fumes
forged on a midnight run.

The miles and poems continued, as Dave started getting fan letters because of  his first book, and then the prize-winning poet (LandLine Magazine, 2007) got hailed in truck stops and book stores by people wanting him to know how much his writing spoke to their thoughts and hearts. Reflections Thru My Windshield Part 2 was published in 2007, and he officially retired from the road, but not from writing.

A Flower

Taillights string out in front of me like beads upon a chain

Headlights lose their brightness in the slowly falling rain 

The wipers beat a rhythm keeping perfect time 

The lanes stretch out before me marked by the dotted line 

There beside the highway a flower struggles to survive 

A lonely flash of color in the grayness of my drive 

The gray of the season broken by a touch of green 

Winter struggles to hold on, spring struggles to be seen 

Another season passes like a footstep out of time 

Marked only by a daffodil by a lonely highway sign.

His latest collection of poetry came out in 2008, Reflections Thru My Windshield Part 3:

Another Trip

Pavement stretches out ahead of him as he pulls out of the gate, 

The load he has just picked up is already one day late. 

The shipper, he blames dispatch, dispatch just doesn't care, 

They all will blame the driver whenever he gets there. 

The driver grabs another gear as his rig comes up to speed, 

Coffee, time and diesel fuel are the only things he needs. 

Linked now by the asphalt to others of his kind, 

The driver sits and ponders the questions in his mind. 

Thoughts of his friends and family and those that he holds dear. 

Pushed firmly to the side as he grabs another gear. 

The rhythm of the high road now has him in its grip, 

Another lonely driver on another lonely trip.

The last we heard, Dave was working on a Western, and it promises to be a real look back at the wildest of the west. But for now, grab a poetry book for yourself or someone special. Dave’s books can be ordered at your neighborhood bookstore or found online at www.truckersbookstore.com