let the world be a little richer

4.22.2025

The clouds are like cotton. Armies of them. They are carbon monoxide. Sweetly, sweetly, I breathe in, filling my veins with invisibles.

Sylvia Plath

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The dawn steps up. Tomorrow becomes today with a wisp of light and a stamping of hooves. The barn door swings open to the cold, damp delight of being alive for one more day. The horses walk out into the corral, and from there they trot to the pasture, knowing that they can gallop if they want to, just as they please. One mare steps up into a canter, her breath showing up like small clouds in the frosty air. Then the dawn steps up into a canter, too, and the distant sun peeks over the tops of the pine trees in the beautiful, silent woods.

jobe

I said to myself: Some things do not blossom in this life.

Robert Hass

Photo by joel herzog on Unsplash

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Farewell, Western Black Rhino.
Horned and rather nearsighted,
I have relatives like that. Indeed,
If one looks at just the skull,
There is a human quality there.
The Western Black Rhino, extinct.
Birds warned them when danger approached,
But in the end the dangers outnumbered the birds.
What can you do?
I wonder now if got it lonely toward the end,
With the last of the great animals wandering about,
Seeking out their kinfolk,
Just wanting to see a friendly face.
And then the final one,
The last Western Black Rhino,
Perhaps knowing the poachers were out there,
A bird screeching at the sound of human footsteps,
And the last beautiful creature just waiting,
Not even caring anymore,
Preferring death to the endless loneliness.

jobe

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A POEM BY DIANE DI PRIMA

An Exercise in Love

for Jackson Allen

My friend wears my scarf at his waist
I give him moonstones
He gives me shell & seaweeds
He comes from a distant city & I meet him
We will plant eggplants & celery together
He weaves me cloth

Many have brought the gifts
I use for his pleasure
silk, & green hills
& heron the color of dawn

My friend walks soft as a weaving on the wind
He backlights my dreams
He has built altars beside my bed
I awake in the smell of his hair & cannot remember
his name, or my own.

Diane di Prima 1934—2020 CE

Diane di Prima

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when I leave here

let me go unembalmed into the soil
no coffin
no headstone
let the world be a little richer
for my passing
my flesh feeding the earth
as I fade away
cual era tu nombre
mi nombre era jobe

jobe

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It is surely a great calamity for a human being to have no obsessions.

Robert Bly

grace

spoiled fruit
stale bread
moldy cheese
ghosts at the table
laughing
pretending to eat

jobe

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Midnight stroll.

Looking toward the streetlamp
I can see the angle of the rain
against the beams of light.
Past that, just darkness.
There is the sound of rain
on the street, no traffic.
Cold air is against my face.

jobe

A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.

Yogi Berra

10 random things.

-I think that Yogi Berra was a bodhisattva who put the enlightenment of us all ahead of himself, as a bodhisattva should. ‘A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore’ is an apt description of Samara.

-If a government deports a person by mistake, admits the mistake, and then refuses to return the person anyway; is that government evil or just plain dumb?

-Being stupid and being criminal are not mutually exclusive. One can easily be both.

-I am both addicted to the news and repulsed by it. I read the news a couple of times a day. Is that not addiction?

-My knee continues to improve from the surgery. Pretty soon I’ll be able to kick myself in the ass again and get myself into trouble just as I always did. Oh, the fun of it all. Perhaps that’s my own Samsara.

-I married well; at least I married well this time.

-You can put a dog in a cow costume, but you won’t get any milk. And that’s two-party politics in a nutshell.

-I fail to see how only two political parties can represent over 350 million people. Left, right, moderate, and ridiculous; we need at least four parties. Perhaps we should have as many parties as there are brands of automobiles. And give test drives before we buy.

-Not that many animals are blue. Why are there no blue dogs or blue cats? I blame Congress.

-Baseball, politics, and creative writing have a lot in common; pretty much anybody can shine one day and totally fail the next. Maybe I should include marriage and animal training as well.

jobe

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Photo by Chris on Unsplash

Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Thanks for reading the book of jobe. The paywall is just below, paid subscribers can continue on, but all subscribers are appreciated.

jobe