roots down and branches up

pablo picasso 1935

you rise up from a seed

first you push through the soil of your lineage

fertilized with love and faith and hope

and then the sapling of your youth breaks into the air

into the light

leaf by leaf you spread through this life

roots down and branches up

sun and rain

the sap in your veins

you are shade and strength

the wood of years

the tree that lives on and on

dropping your own seed for the next generation

__________

A rare glimpse of an owl hunting in the park. I imagine a field mouse running for its life. Watching, I feel so hollow. I am a steel tube. Something is missing inside of me. Empty. What? The owl rises back up from the field, flapping hard. She has something in her claw, but I can't tell what it is. A slow mouse, perhaps. She lands high up in one the tall pines to eat in privacy. 

__________

another poet asked me 

"how can you write poems everyday"

"how can you not write them" says I

james lee jobe

__________

There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence.

Cesar Chavez

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