This place has wonderful desserts.
6.15.2025
What is poetry which does not save nations or people?
Czeslaw Milosz
It took over an hour to climb up
the zig-zag trail to the ridgetop
where a boulder overlooks lake berryessa
and I climbed up sometimes for the view
that day a rattlesnake owned the boulder
he shook his rattle at me as if to say
“not today mister”
I gave him a deep bow (gassho)
to thank him for his warning
I have always appreciated
the good manners of rattlesnakes
offering me a chance to leave
and that I did
jobe
The sun travels west and the shadows lengthen
and stretch back to the east
the sky at times is dressed by the wind
other times it is naked and still
and what of my mother’s son
at times he is a fool — other times a dreamer
and sometimes both at once
late afternoon — my hands held up high
in the wind giving praise to the sky
my shadow reaches out to the east
yet the west is my home
jobe
A POEM BY HERMAN HESSE
Mountains at Night
The lake has died down,
The reed, black in its sleep,
Whispers in a dream.
Expanding immensely into the countryside,
The mountains loom, outspread.
They are not resting.
They breathe deeply, and hold themselves,
Pressed tightly to one another.
Deeply breathing,Laden with mute forces,
Caught in a wasting passion.
Hermann Hesse, 1877 — 1962
Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. It was cold. Oh, cold enough! But it was also still, wonderfully still and vast like the cold stillness of space in which the stars revolve.
Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf
I walk
flat feet across this flat valley
coyotes and owls for my audience
as I write these poems in my head
step after step — line after line
years of living give me the words
sunlight shows me the way to go
and sometimes moonlight
I have the secret permission
of the coyotes and the owls
jobe
Look at the forks in the hands of the diners, they're like bibles in the hands of the priests, like guns in the hands of the killers. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s been fifty-seven years since my last confession. Please pass the salt and the ammunition. I’ve drawn a bead on the waiter, you take out the chef. And relax, go with it. This place has wonderful desserts. They serve them right after communion.
jobe
There are three side effects of acid: enhanced long-term memory,
decreased short-term memory, and I forget the third.
Timothy Leary
Putah creek is alive with the sounds
of rather small beings this noise
is pleasant and light like the sounds
when you take the wrapping paper
from a present — a frog croaks
a woodpecker taps — a heron wades
and makes tiny splashes — I skip a rock
across the surface of the water
and the creek watches this
with the eyes of a mother
keeping track of a child
jobe
American people simply will not countenance
being lied to by their own President.
Pierre Salinger
Silently
time passes.
The only life I have
submits to its power.
Hatsui Shizue
I dip my toes in the river where no one ever swims. The water is cold, and I jump in anyway. I pull a strength up into me from a place far below and I swim as though I am crossing the fires of the maddened sky. I do not die. Not yet. The mauls of life pound me down and I stand again anyway. We all own that, but only if we claim it. I turn away from the face of evil and so become free. There is no hell, the devils live inside of us. Cast them out. Let the beasts come and let the earth quiver. Whatever is next, I can face. I do not give a damn for consequence. I do not give a damn if I now fail. I have already done everything that I came here to do.
jobe