Midnight with the books of the dead.

“Patriarchy is a disease and we are in perennial recovery and relapse. So you have to get up every morning and struggle against it.”

-Cornel West

midnight has come and so

let us now enjoy the books of the dead 

books that have waited upon dusty shelves 

for the living to enjoy 

now is the time 

turn up the lamp 

settle down into the easy chair 

open the first book to the first page 

midnight with the books of the dead 

read 

-James Lee Jobe

Otis Redding - That's How Strong My Love Is

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.”

-Helen Keller

your life is a tree 

you live in the branches 

hidden by green leaves 

there is sap involved and fruit 

change is a slow but steady thing 

your life is a tree 

roots are one metaphor 

and fruit is another 

let's not go there 

instead let's just say this 

your life is lovely 

beautiful 

especially in autumn 

-James Lee Jobe 

"All know the Way, but few actually walk it." 

-Bodhidharma

people who know me say

"your son is dead 

how do you stand it"

good question and I don't know

I do one thing at a time

I put one foot in front of the other

and so I walk and I breathe

and I eat some food and so I live 

but life is completely gone 

I can still go outside to see the dawn 

or better still 

to see the last of the night 

the cool air 

the changing sky

-James Lee Jobe 

"If it isn't good, let it die. If it doesn't die, make it good."

-Ajahn Chah

a poem by Nanao Sakaki, 1923-2008 

In The Next Life I Will Be

Wiping the windowpanes of my humble shack,

a dirty dust cloth in my hand,

endless blue sky over my head.

At the forest edge

where narcissus are already in all their glory,

where wild boars bite off various trees' roots every so often,

where I stand, piss, and murmur.

In the next life I will be a dust cloth

lapis lazuli colored.

As a dust cloth, making myself dirty

I clean up windowpanes, kitchens and toilets,

and I also wipe out discrimination and wars.

If ever the world really exists

I start polishing it from my tiny corner.

If ever eternity really exists

I make it brilliant at every moment.

The more I work, the more I become

pure lapis lazuli color

just like today's sky.

Ten days after winter solstice

the mother sun is shining bright.

All of a sudden, a gust of north wind

blows the dead leaves from the trees.

Look, something coming down!

With our luminous star behind

red wings flutter.

What is that? Hawk? Flying goblin? UFO?

Wow! On the palm of my hand

I catch the monster -

a withered red leaf of oak.

Living in the flower garden of the sun's red corona

biting off the rainbow's roots forever

someone murmurs

In the next life I will be....

-Nanao Sakaki 

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