passing the days in peace

JLJ

Into November but there is no sign of autumn at all

California’s great northern valley is still bone dry

The yearly rains have not yet started 

The trees are still green

Eighty degrees today 

I helped a friend work on his travel-trailer a little while

Cooked stir-fry sausage and vegetables on rice

Lots of hot sauce on my own dish 

Drank coffee on into the evening 

Reading translations of Li Po and Dogen 

Reading Gary Snyder’s poems

Set in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains

My wife and a friend have both been in the hospital
But tonight they were home for dinner

And good conversation

A waning crescent moon tonight 

The evenings grow chillier 

Perhaps autumn is coming after all

In just a moment I will close this old notebook

And go snuggle on the sofa with my wife

Sometimes I feel like an old man

And sometimes I don’t 

Either way the days and years pass in peace.

James Lee Jobe

“Caring is all we have. Cynicism is just a soft form of denial.”

Jenny Offill

No angels for me

No gods or heaven

No saviors

But there is the air

Clean after a quick rain

And there are the trees

Glistening and wet

That’s enough for me

James Lee Jobe

"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against."

Malcolm X

A long storm

The two of us in that tiny cabin 

Just two rooms and one lantern 

Lightening and thunder

Rain on a tin roof

The storm drowns out the soft sound

Of our clothes dropping on the wooden floor

James Lee Jobe

"Work out your own salvation with diligence."

The Buddha's last words

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James