birds & the weight of death

Stevenson Road Bridge across Putah Creek, Yolo County

        What is the weight of death? He wondered that. He would put a corpse on a scale that held a balance of life and death, and then subtract life, but the sum he got never seemed right. He tried this many times, until the pile of bodies was taller than the hills and the air stank. Eventually he died not knowing the answer, but friend, not every question has an answer. 

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        Not unlike young writers announcing their presence, an owl calls from out of the pines and oaks of the park. It is night. I am alone.

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Birds grace my property because I feed them

a winter morning with sparrows and doves

eating together on my patio

no one brings up politics

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james lee jobe 

To give yourself up without regret is the greatest charity. 

Bodhidarma 

In Spain, the dead are more alive than the dead of any other country in the world. 

Federico Garcia Lorca

Listen with your body, your heart, your eyes, your energy, your total presence. Listen in silence, without interrupting. Fill any spaces of silence between you with love. 

Beth Roth

When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.

Malala Yousafzai 

Gary Clark Jr, If Trouble Was Money

LINK: February 11, 1990, a poem by Wanda Coleman 

LINK: Via Negativa Daily Digest, today with poetry from Dave Bonta

LINK: ‘Failure is an opportunity. Failure is art. Failure is human’: Poet Raena Shirali

-a poem by Gil Scott-Heron- (1949–2011)

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

You will not be able to stay home, brother.

You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.

You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,

Skip out for beer during commercials,

Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox

In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.

The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon

blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John

Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat

hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the

Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie

Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.

The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.

The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.

The revolution will not make you look five pounds

thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May

pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,

or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.

NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32

or report from 29 districts.

The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down

brothers in the instant replay.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down

brothers in the instant replay.

There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being

run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.

There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy

Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and

Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving

For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville

Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and

women will not care if Dick finally gets down with

Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people

will be in the street looking for a brighter day.

The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock

news and no pictures of hairy armed women

liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.

The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,

Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom

Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message

About a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.

You will not have to worry about a dove in your

bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.

The revolution will not go better with Coke.

The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.

The revolution WILL put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,

will not be televised, will not be televised.

The revolution will be no re-run brothers;

The revolution will be live.

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jlj