If we live, we live; if we die, we die; if we suffer, we suffer; if we are terrified, we are terrified. No problem.
Alan Watts
Time without form
form without the bare face of time
what is Buddha nature?
everything
nothing
stripping away the illusions
that I built around myself
there is no jobe
what is left?
nothing
everything
jobe
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
Samuel Johnson
Coffee and an old album by the BoDeans
a month with no rain – dust is in the air
walking on painful feet and with a bad knee
the son that I lost is in my eyes again
he is walking the halls through my heart
time is a hammer pounding
I smile until the world looks away
and wait for the quick moments
when the world isn't watching me suffer
jobe
Eating the Moon in Cotulla, TX, a poem by Analicia Sotelo
You can follow the moon
it's one way to end up in the sky
on the street
people walk like they are proud of their clothes
like they are in love with their phones
and in the fields
the plants are telling each other stories
that they learned as seeds and roots
time is a hammer
beating a bent nail straight
the way that old men do
trying to save a few pennies
I am almost a pauper
close but not quite
there is the moon
rising in the purple sky
and by God I am going to follow it
jobe
Dreamwalking Ballad, a poem by Federico GarcÃa Lorca
The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.
Mahmoud Darwish
The cabin-cruiser wasn't seaworthy but he bought it anyway
"I got a good price on it" he said
as if anything with a good price should be purchased on the spot
sitting on its trailer the boat took up the entire two-car driveway
and he parked it there forever
like a suburban monument to the foibles of man
he hooked up electricity to the boat
but used the bathroom in the house
and truly he lived in that boat for the rest of his life
"oh the old fool just sleeps better out there I suppose"
said the wife he never touched again
jobe
I know it sounds strange, but I'm one of those people who goes to a coffee shop to drink coffee.
W. Bruce Cameron
Prose Poem ("The morning coffee.") by Ron Padgett
I thought of writing a will
but what do I own that anyone would want
my doggo heard me laughing by myself
and came in to keep me company
jobe
Poetry is an echo,
asking a shadow to dance.
Carl Sandburg
In the dream I am worried
there is some unnamed danger
in traveling to the back of the island where I live
most people take primitive boats
because the jungle has many wild animals
it’s safer to paddle
and several people have been killed either way
I spend many days working out a way to travel
through the treetops with the help of friendly monkeys
"the monkeys will help you"
I go through the village streets shouting this
and the elders welcome me with a dance
it's not bad this dream
as dreams go
jobe
Strong books and stronger coffee
a fine dog and a finer wife
a house that is old but comfortable
and so my old age passes
one fine day at a time
jobe
DRAGON GATE GORGE
Dragon Gate cuts a wide gorge.
Trees line the road from the city gate,
and the Imperial Palace is imposing.
The temples are silver and gold.
The seasons shift. I come and go;
the lands and waters roll on.
Of all those I meet along this road,
will I ever meet any again?
TU FU 712-770 CE
Translation by Sam Hamill 1943-2018 CE