the dogs of her body bark and howl

Bride’s Toilet, 1937, painting by Amrita Sher-Gil

Time is passing and you remain naked.

Looking down, you discover your own nakedness.
Have the others noticed? You cannot tell,
you are not sure, you feel thick, like a wall
or a brick, and your thinking seems clouded.
You see a small throw rug on the floor
and you attempt to cover yourself with it,
but no matter what you do, no matter how
you twist and turn the rug, you remain exposed.
The rug even seems to get smaller, and then
it is not a rug at all, but a handkerchief.
Time is passing and you remain naked.
Again you wonder, have the others noticed?
There are people all around, walking, chatting,
shopping. Walking right past you. you see
that you are in a crowded market. If anyone stops
to look at you, you will be revealed. And friend,
there is nothing you can do to change this. 

        We were on a trail not far from the Sierra Buttes when we found it. The boulder was huge, perhaps fifteen feet across, and flat on top. Right by the trail. My son, Will, was only ten, and the hike was some real work for him. We had been going for a couple of hours, and I was a little tired, this was in my mid-forties, so I knew he was tired. We had been making up stories while we walked. We spread our gear out on this boulder and had some lunch, fifteen years later I can't remember what; trail food. It looked to be midday, but I wasn't sure as we didn't bring a watch. We didn't want time to matter out there. We could see a very small snow-melt waterfall a little up the grade and we cooled off in it. We drank some of the water too, without filtering it. John Muir had no filter. I had a book of Gary Snyder poems in my pack and we read a few poems aloud, and then we slept for just a bit, right there on the boulder. Not far from the Sierra Buttes. Father and son. My son is gone now, but the memory remains. That’s mine to keep. 

Running with the dogs.

Her gown falls to her feet, and the dogs  of her body bark and howl, and then run  through the door and out into the moonlight.  Soon, very soon, I intend to join them. 

-James Lee Jobe

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

         -Li Po, 701-762

You ask why I live 

alone in the mountain forest, 

and I smile and am silent 

until even my soul grows quiet.

The peach trees blossom. 

The water continues to flow. 

I live in the other world, 

one that lies beyond the human.

"If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry."

-Emily Dickinson

"The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there."

-Robert M. Pirsig 

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-JLJ