3/31/2023
If you are truly a damn fool, then follow me.
3/30/2023
you lob-lollies, you whisperers in the dawn
Hello, you sunbeams, you blooms of spring, you dreamers, you cartons of delight, you treasures, you lob-lollies, you drummers, you singers, you whisperers in the dawn.
james lee jobe
The foolish reject what they see, not what they think; the wise reject what they think, not what they see.
Huang Po
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Have no fear of perfection, you'll never achieve it.
Salvador Dali
james lee jobe
When facing a flat landscape, I see nothing but eternity.
Vincent van Gogh
I am peeling away the words 'original sin' from the tight corners of the sky. It is like peeling plastic wrapping from a package you don't really want to open. This is taking a long time, longer than I would have thought. I have a new marking pen, blue, and when I have done away with 'original sin' I intend to write 'original blessing' in its place. As I work, the sun begins to set, and the sky is the color of a ripe peach. Friend, I chose this life for myself.
james lee jobe
What happens in the world, and what business is it of yours?
Rumi
james lee jobe
You can't live in paradise- but you are living right here. Make this your paradise or make this your hell.
Brad Warner
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jlj
3/29/2023
fields of corn and sunflowers
The labor in the fields.
Your life was once a field of corn.
Your life was once a field of sunflowers,
a field of alfalfa. A field of wheat.
With hoe and seed and water and sweat
we worked the fields of the living
under the watchful eye of the sun.
Then, in the darkness between those days,
we worked the fields of the dead.
James Lee Jobe
Everything is perfect and there is always room for improvement.
Shunryu Suzuki
Responses that arise from the subconscious often don’t make sense initially, but if we keep following the threads without judgment, it all eventually becomes clear.
Lama Palden Drolma
May the sorrows and hurts, each as they come, only strengthen my resolve to be a better person, and also this; that from these sorrows and hurts I learn all over again how to forgive.
James Lee Jobe
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We were created to look at one another, weren’t we?
Edgar Degas
Focus, not on the rudenesses of others, not on what they've done or left undone, but on what you have and haven't done yourself.
The Dhammapada
The sky was doused with gasoline,
and set on fire. I raised my hands
up into the flame without hesitation,
but, friend, I did not burn.
The fat in the sky melted
and dripped down onto the earth,
making rivers, making the oceans.
ashes came down, too,
Making the hills and mountains.
The fire burned for a million years.
the smoke was thick and curly,
like a young girl's hair.
I twisted one curl-lock around my finger,
again and again.
It felt very human to do so.
Looking up, the girl smiled at me, and then
she cupped my face with her perfect hands.
James Lee Jobe
Of all the words that pour out of our mouths every day, how many of them are really ours, and how many are patched together from others?
Haemin Sunim
I proceed by trial and error.
Bridget Riley, artist
Link: Mouth, a poem by Dana Roeser
Link: The Sound Of Music, a poem by Kathryn Nuernberger
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jlj
3/28/2023
I am nothing. I am no one.
Don’t listen to my words for I am nothing. I am no one. An empty shell that should hold a man but instead holds emptiness. The Void.
And don’t follow in my footsteps for I am lost. A fool with no sense of direction. I have no destination. I am moved by the wind. By distraction.
No past. No future. The perfection of this moment. Hold on that and be free. If you can. To be aware in the moment is to know yourself.
Goodbye.
James Lee Jobe
in line to get on the bus for home
make sure each bullet is shiny enough to reflect the sunlight
say a prayer and bless the bullets
for surely a connection with death awaits them
talk to the bullets like a christian republican
speaking to a congregation
then load the weapons and move out
no one lives forever
3/26/2023
even the birds have gone silent.
Man, I do not want to be chained to the machine that runs it all. This world, this nonsense. No, let these flowers be adored and fall with the rain onto the beautiful streets of tomorrow. No, let these children play as they wish in the blue snow of the singing winter mountain, in the creeks of the summer woods blessed with strange and colorful birds, and on the swings of the parks in heaven. Deny the machine, let a new sun and a new moon make love in the purple and red sky at dawn, crying out with passion and delight. Let that which is greater than you adore and dress this life with something worthy of worship. Deny the machine. The time we waited for is here, now, and every screaming second pulls us closer to our faith and our hope. This is the new beginning, cast off the pain and the lethargy of the years and decades that you waited, brother, sister, the joy that we wanted for so long begins now.
Avoid the world, it's just a lot of dust and drag and means nothing in the end.
Jack Kerouac
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A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.
Dōgen
The sorrow of the blue sky.
Even the birds have gone silent.
My son's ghost must be passing by again.
James Lee Jobe
True happiness is based on peace.
Thích Nhất Hạnh
Oh, you have no idea how dark it is.
Just as I know the universe has no end,
I know that there is a shadow across my soul.
Can you actually prove that we have souls?
No, but I can show you the shadow --
Are you up to seeing it?
James Lee Jobe
There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do.
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Below the perfect yellow moon a street light is burning white White WHITE. Why is it even on? Once I have walked past, no one will be there to see it. From one of the valley oaks an owl lets out a soft vowel sound. Perhaps she, too, would prefer the moonlight on its own. I'll go and ask her.
James Lee Jobe
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jlj
the trees drink your most kind thoughts
Human beings become smoke
mountains also and rivers
time becomes smoke
then a wind is whistled up
and all blows away
ah
nonexistence at last
James Lee Jobe
You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
Gautama Buddha
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You are taking a walk beside the river. Look at the water, is it not more beautiful than the sheen of a diamond? Like tomorrow. Like love. Like the slender hands of the angels under starlight. The trees drink your most kind thoughts and are silver in return. They reward your faith with a new name. It is full-on winter and you can feel the cold crispness of a possible heaven with your nose and your ears. You feel a love for what might be a god and you look up at the sky, even though you know that the divine is inside of you, in your own golden heart. In your own diamond soul. A red eared slider slowly eases into the water without a sound.
James Lee Jobe
Life is not the taking possession of anything, but a taking part in everything.
Lama Govinda
My corpse burnt like a city in wartime
my life ended and forgotten
so shall it be
in time
James Lee Jobe
Link: Ancestors’ wildest dreams, a poem by Kinsale Drake
Walking the broken streets I turned stones into flowers. There were roses of many colors. One purple iris I saved for my love. A bouquet of stone with the scent of a million tears! At the end of a long day this scent was everywhere, on your clothes, your hands. On your life.
James Lee Jobe
Awareness itself is the primary currency of the human condition, and as such it deserves to be spent carefully.
Andrew Olendzki
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james
3/25/2023
Jesus playing goalie for Toronto
Here at the End of Days
Jesus has returned
And this time he plays hockey
For the Toronto Maple Leafs
Mary Magdalene sells make-up
On late night television infomercials
And Judas Iscariot is a conservative
Supreme Court Justice
This morning I walked outside
And found that I was inside again
Walking back in
I found myself in the front yard
Looking to the sky
I could see the moon was still up
Watching my every move
James Lee Jobe
We are always in transition. If you can just relax with that, you'll have no problem.
Chogyam Trungpa
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Seeds
We are but seeds and our lives are the earth, the soil.
Tell me, what shall we grow in this garden?
James Lee Jobe
None so deaf as those that will not hear. None so blind as those that will not see.
Matthew Henry
Mourning Yin Yao
Returning you to Stone-Tower Mountain, we bid farewell among ash-green pine and cypress, then return home.
Of your bones now buried white cloud, this much remains forever: streams cascading empty toward human realms.
Wang Wei, 701-762 CE
I Call Bullshit
I heard it said that actors and artists
should not comment on politics.
What nonsense.
If the leaders are not helping the people or the earth
we should be quick to speak out.
A film or a play against war, greed, or cruelty.
A painting, a sculpture
that captures the evil being done to us,
or perhaps the beauty of human kindness.
Poems by the dozens that spew lava and truths
that burn through lies and the lust for power.
Poets, artists, novelists, actors - create!
Speak for those voices that are not heard.
James Lee Jobe
You cannot simply stay at home and say, “I am already where I want to be.” It is only the journey that makes you realize your true potential, and only at the end of the journey will you understand that the goal is not to separate from the starting point.
Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche
I need more poems about the quiet mice of the sky; their eyes are rain clouds.
James Lee Jobe
LINK: The Moon Is In Labor, a poem by Gail Wronsky
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Thanks, James
3/24/2023
the cracks in time
I wipe the stink from the blade. I carry the cup from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, but I do not drink the blood. Not ever. I do not love the city for its lights or wealth. I remember well when the streets were on fire with the anger of the poor. Was there ever a time when this land was not at war? I do not listen to the priests anymore; I stopped when I was very young. I pray, yes, but not to the false god of damnation. I pray to the universe of the light and the creation. I pray that I will earn the kindness that was shown to me, and that I will, in turn, be kind myself. Turn and turn again. I remember my childhood as if it was a foreign country that I visited long ago. Where will I end up if I continue to walk this same road? I don't know, but I intend to find out.
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The mirrors are still at last, and you are so tired. You are listening to the wheezing breaths of the smokers. Even your mind is tired, and you don't really want to think anymore, but you don't know how to stop. From a dark corner of your consciousness you sense that the animals are slowly returning to the forest, and you wish that you could join them. You will die one day and until then you will never be free of this reality. Yes, there are cracks in time, you've seen them, but they are too small to slip through and escape. Your life is a slender being, moving from shadow to shadow, slinking in memory and loneliness. The room smells of disinfectant and the nurse with the cart is bringing the medication. You check the mirror one more time and then look up at the plain-faced clock and see that three minutes have passed since the last time you looked.
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James Lee Jobe
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Governments can readily allocate billions of dollars to fight wars and yet refuse to spend modest sums to fight poverty.
Jose Ramos-Horta
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A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
Dalai Lama XIV
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When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say, "Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere."
Shunryu Suzuki
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LINKS:
Philomela’s tongue says, a poem by Melissa Studdard
A Monstrous Catalpa Tree Grows from a Drain, a poem by Regan Good
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