the world was a thing of fire

tom killion, bolinas ridge sunset

what do you see

in the park today 

walking slowly   very slowly 

I can hear an owl    a crow 

children playing soccer 

and music from somewhere 

don't know where 

all of those gifts just with my ears 

now open your eyes james 

look

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a silence so lovely that even the forest smiles 

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zazen

dawn sitting 

I breathe in peace 

I breathe out anxiety 

letting it go

aaah 

in this life I am a simple man 

breathing 

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the summer that the world burned

because
the world was a thing of fire
I had nowhere to go
but down my skin

had not yet hardened
into steel like now and I
was still just a boy of seven summers
our house was rented

and made of paper
and when my father set a flame to it
there was much to explain
an atonement was needed called for

and never actually happened we lived in ash
and smoke my mother my sister and I
my father went away
after carving up our pitiful dreams

with a bowie knife and then he made love
to sin itself I needed him to explain to me
what it meant the fire the carving why
I had to be so torn but I didn't have the words

to ask him this it required a language
that was beyond my timid skills and so I lived
that way for many years below
the earth below the scorched

sky silent when it was time to speak
speaking when it was time
for silence hating my father
loving him and needing

something
that I couldn't ask for
something
that he didn't have to give

by james lee jobe

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"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." 

 Thích Nhất Hạnh

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Thanks, james