wet boots caked with mud

 Christian Schloe

I'll see you in my dreams

these days the nightmares charge in
like outlaws who have come to rob the bank
not so much terror and fear in them
not ghosts or monsters or death more likely it is some obstacle that I cannot overcome
some chore that is never completed
something that forever keeps me from peace
that forever keeps me from the freedom that I crave
can never have and wouldn't know what to with anyway
bedtime goodnight

james lee jobe

Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that.

Mary Oliver

Late winter. Northeast Texas. 1970s. (a haibun)

Chainsaws roaring in a thicket to cut a right-of-way for power lines. We took the trucks through muddy fields until they could roll no farther. Then, into a wood thick with trees, we carried the tools the rest of the way. It rained, it stopped, it rained again. Cold. Wet boots caked with mud. Wet cigarettes. The trees were mixed; bois d'arc, oak, elm. Down closer to the rain swollen stream was a stand of willows, bent with age. A hard north wind. Still, for the harshness of it all, there was something beautiful - the clear sound of a woodpecker at work. But then the chainsaws were fired up.

after the storm passed

even the sun seemed cleaner

clear sky   a clean world

james lee jobe

We are all connected. When you touch one thing, you are touching everything. Whatever we do has an effect on others. Therefore, we must learn to live mindfully to touch the peace inside each of us.

Thich Nhat Hanh

have you returned to me after so long away

past midnight
something pushing on my skull
a hard and steady pressure
like a man's hands or like guilt
son is that you
have you returned to me after so long away
no you're really dead
and there is no one and nothing here
but me alone
I rise and go to the window to look
though there is nothing out there but darkness
and I knew it would be so
all of that and only a couple of minutes
have passed

james lee jobe

Don’t be in a hurry to condemn others because they don’t do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.

Malcolm X

I took the picture, but it isn't my Jeep. I just kind of wish it was.

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