Waiting for that interminable traffic light at College Drive and Camino del Rio, I saw a city of Durango fleet pickup with the decal saying “ode Compliance” on the passenger-side door. It happened so fast that I didn’t get a snapshot to provide photographic evidence of our fair city’s newest function. I hope you can enlighten your devoted readers further. – Devotedly, Wryawry
If one were a cynical malcontent – and who isn’t these days? – there could be but one explanation for a new “ode Compliance” department in Durango.
It’s because of the establishment of the Durango Creative District.
The local creative district was formally announced Dec. 17, one of three new designations statewide to add to Colorado’s roll call of 23 creative districts.
So that’s last year’s news.
Come to think of it, it would be last decade’s news – except for the fact that some pedantic horologists insist that 2020 is, in fact, the final year of the decade.
In 2020 hindsight, who cares?
And who really wants The Teens to drag out for yet another year? Bah.
Meanwhile, back at the Durango Creative District.
The designation is as much about economics as it is about art.
According to Colorado Creative Industries, the state’s arts agency, the creative district is designed to invest in and support the arts by proving “a strong foundation for places where people want to live, work and visit.”
As the latest draft pick, Durango will get “an award package including financial support, technical assistance, marketing support, access to grants, CDOT highway signs and leadership training,” CCI announced.
In addition, the state’s certification requirements “are some of the highest standards in the nation,” CCI added.
So it’s a big deal.
Therefore, you just can’t have unapproved itinerant bards writing whatever they want in a state-designated creative district!
Composers will need to “urn” the trust of prose pros, who take a hard stanza on odious odes.
Thus, Action Line called Local First’s Hayley Kirkman, the interim director of the Durango Creative District, about the new “ode Compliance” function.
“I can assure you that there is no Poetry Police,” Haley said, then burst out laughing.
So rest assured, all aspiring writers of long-winded verse, there are no wordsmiths walking the beat.
(Would that make them “beat poets”?)
In any case, Action Line needed confirmation, so a call was placed to our good friend Steve Barkley, a code compliance officer with the city.
Maybe, just maybe, one of his Code Compliance trucks had the “C” peel off of the door?
Steve went out into the cold to check on the fleet.
Alas and alack, all city truck signage was in good order.
Action Line can’t explain the sighting of an “ode Compliance” vehicle.
Thus the column must end with a haiku, which is about as far away from an ode as you can get in poetry.
With “ode Compliance,”
there is a single letter
between ode and odd
The above proves conclusively that Durango must require applications for a poetic license, regardless of any sort of wide-open creative district.
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if roses are red and violets are blue.
