DRIVE MY HEART

BY TRACY SCHLAPP

I’ll drive my heart out on the open road
And I’ll climb my mind to the tops of the old growth
And I’ll let my soul sweep down across the Western plain
And out to sea
Danny Wilson, Drive My Heart

The modern American identity has been forged in the paved roads that bisect the country. Think Kerouac’s scroll, Springsteen’s New Jersey turnpike, Easy Rider, Kristofferson’s Bobby McGee … stories of rebels, antiheroes, outcasts all pursing freedom. Road songs are poignant in prison. It has been years, decades even since many of our writers have rolled down the window to surf the air with their hands. You can feel that itch to swing a ring of car keys around the index finger and neatly catch them in the palm.

The underbelly of the Kerouacesque American road adventure is the experience of folks who have the guardrails come off. Timothy Aikins first learned to the joy of the open road from his trucker stepfather Charles. And when he lost this seminal figure, he tried to reconnect to his stepfather’s spirit hitching in Freedoms of the Road.

Yellow Highway lines connect us to our writers — this past year we have driven 13,451 miles to visit eight prisons around the state to lead 78 writers workshops. Danny’s song Yellow Lines makes an interesting writing prompt in our workshops. First he reads the lyrics and the group writes responses to something that they hear. We then have Danny play the song and discuss the differences we detect in the performance. J. Hunter and R. Miranda took the exercise further, and submitted “Yellow Lines" poems.

Earlier this year, our house band Luther’s Boots released the record everything’s gonna turn out fine with a concert at Oregon State Penitentiary. You can stream the record on all platforms. At the concert, I sat with our PonyXpress editors. As the band played Drive My Heart, I could feel the collective longing to cross the walls and drive out toward the Western plain. | TDS

listen: Drive My Heart by Danny Wilson & Luther’s Boots