I confessed your sins.

Cartoon poet

Questioning everything includes questioning the doctrine “Question Everything.”

-Brad Warner

I set out to confess my sins

but I confessed yours instead 

it seemed like that would be more interesting 

and it was 

also I made up some sins 

by that point I was on a roll 

there is no god   no heaven   no hell 

but forgive me anyway 

please 

-james lee jobe 

Patience is key to your mental health when you are physically ill. It is one of the few virtues you can actively cultivate when your body ceases to cooperate.

-Shozen Jack Haubner

LINK: The Earth, a poem by Sheila Black

bitter cold that day 

when we buried my grandma 

gray sky in January 1969   

Randallstown Maryland 

I was still a kid not yet 13 

the razor wind cut right through me 

my knees were shaking 

my face felt frozen 

I kept thinking that she would be in that hole 

for as long as I lived

my grandma   how I loved her jokes 

her scratchy voice and Baltimore accent 

calling everyone Hon 

such a cold awful day 

I shiver even now remembering it 

and it is mid summer in California 

         dear old soul 

-james lee jobe

Although they appear to be quite different, sadness and openness are in fact intimately connected. The profound sadness that overwhelms us when we understand the impermanent nature of all phenomena opens us up to the world around us.

-Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, “The Secret Strength of Sadness”

LINK: Anticipated Stranger, a poem by John Ashberry

watching a fall storm
rain falling into Putah Creek
the cycle is a circle
the circle is a cycle
oh how life goes around

-james lee jobe 

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

-Shunryu Suzuki

AT GOLDEN-RIDGE 

Golden-Ridge City 

is tucked into the earth 

with the river curving past 

and flowing away 

once a million homes where right here 

crimson towers beside narrow lanes 

a vanished country 

all spring grasses

and now 

the palace is buried in ancient hills 

yet this moon remains 

facing the timeless island 

across the water of Hou Lake water 

empty 

-LI PO, 701-762 CE

Herbie Hancock - Chameleon

Hello. James Lee here. If you enjoy this blog, and I hope that you do, please consider making a donation through the BUY ME A COFFEE button below. It's done safely online, and just takes a moment.

Thanks! -James