Ashes in the wind.

It rained at spring equinox
And a beautiful quiet filled the house
In the dark just before sunrise
There was only the sound of the rain
And my wife yelling
For more toilet paper

-----

How different might life be
If we had to carry with us everywhere
The coffin or urn
That would one day hold our remains
I think that I would like my ashes
To be tossed into a strong wind

-----

In their world I suppose am a poor man 

But not in my world 

In my world I am wealthy  

I have my life, my family, and a home   

People love me and I love them   Money is nothing  

-----

We’re strangers, you and I, dear reader. We’ll likely never meet. Strangers riding a planet that spins as it orbits a star, and that star is itself hurtling through time and space. These few words may be all that is ever between us. Peace be with you. Enjoy life.

James Lee Jobe

Focus, not on the rudenesses of others, not on what they've done or left undone, but on what you have and haven't done yourself.

The Dhammapada

-----

Everything is perfect and there is always room for improvement.

Shunryu Suzuki

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Help me now as I gather the wood.

I will die one day as we all must

Don’t weep too much for me

Life is everything and nothing

All at the same time

A life is but a moment

Just the blink of an eye

Don’t weep too much for me

I lived and loved

I gained and lost

I will die one day as we all must

Don’t weep too much for me

Don’t weep too much for me

James Lee Jobe

Speak not because it is safe, but because it is right.

Edward Snowden

Tom Waits - Chocolate Jesus

Perhaps we evolved this way

So that we could bury the dogs and cats

So that someone would be there

To shoot the horse that would only suffer

Life and death

Leave a certain amount of cleaning up

That must be done

And so we have minds that can reason

We have hands that can grasp a shovel

Or squeeze a trigger

Help me now as I gather the wood

The fire I am building needs to be very large

And very hot

James Lee Jobe

When bankers dine together, they discuss art. When artists dine together, they discuss money. 

Oscar Wilde

Those who are ill, may they be well.

Those are afraid, may they be well.

Those who are alone, may they be well.

Those without a home, may they be well.

James Lee Jobe

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Dōgen Zenji

My bird is yelling at the dogs Who are barking at a cat Sunrise again James Lee Jobe

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The taste of sunshine.

Walking the broken streets I turned stones into flowers. There were roses of many colors. One purple iris I saved for my love. A bouquet of stone with the scent of a million tears! At the end of a long day this scent was everywhere, on your clothes, your hands. On your life.

James Lee Jobe

Avoid the world, it's just a lot of dust and drag and means nothing in the end.

Jack Kerouac

Art Pepper Quartet - Live in 1964

This is how the sunshine tastes.

Like birth, like life. And this is how

It tastes to be a human in sunlight.

Even now, in the darkness, the flavor

Is on my lips, on my tongue.

James Lee Jobe

A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.

Dōgen

This valley So long, flat, and wide Is graced by the Sacramento River Cold and quick Air that is like your first breath Air that holds your most private moments The earth here is as rich a Vanderbilt Or a Kennedy The crops are diamonds in the rough And the air and the soil grace each other The way that an angel might grace a child James Lee Jobe

There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do.

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

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Taking the fun out of gambling.

Joshua Tree National Park, California

Spring continues with more rain

The evergreen trees seem to shine

As if they had been polished

Perhaps by giant hands

And the oaks and the elms sport new buds

Everywhere I look life continues

The winter chores I didn’t get to come to mind

I meant to trim the peach tree

And I meant to clear out some undergrowth

Instead I was sick and wrote a lot of poems

But why beat myself up for that

Poetry outranks yard work

Everyone knows that

I’ll let mother nature take charge of the yard

Again

James Lee Jobe

Life is not the taking possession of anything, but a taking part in everything. 

Lama Govinda

Be yourself, says the sun, the explosion is yet a long ways off.

James Lee Jobe

Taj Mahal - Catfish Blues

He stood in front of me and glared

And his glance was unafraid

A lizard on a trail in the yuba river country

James Lee Jobe

A poem from David Whyte

THE BELL AND THE BLACKBIRD

The sound

of a bell

still reverberating,

or a blackbird

calling

from a corner

of a

field.

Asking you

to wake

into this life

or inviting you

deeper

to one that waits.

Either way

takes courage,

either way wants you

to be nothing

but that self that

is no self at all,

wants you to walk

to the place

where you find

you already know

how to give

every last thing

away.

The approach

that is also

the meeting itself,

without any

meeting

at all.

That radiance

you have always

carried with you

as you walk

both alone

and completely

accompanied

in friendship

by every corner

of the world

crying

Allelujah.

David Whyte

I pray that your flowered dreams have blossomed like summer.

James Lee Jobe

If something is not working out, do not hold on to it for too long just because you have already invested a lot of time and effort. Knowing the right time to give up is a form of wisdom. Giving up does not mean the end but the beginning of a new path. 

Haemin Sunim

A virus that floats in the air

COVID-19

You can breathe and end up dead

And yet you have to breathe to live

This game is rigged I tell ya

The fix is in

The dice are loaded

The deck stacked with marked cards

What can you do

But cash in the chips you have left

And go on home

COVID-19

Is taking all the fun out of gambling

James Lee Jobe

Khaleesi, Mother of Dragons, granddaughter

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Every day lasts for a thousand years.

Julie Mehretu, Dispersion, 2002

Every evening
Darkness swallows it all
Including the sun
Then come morning
The darkness is erased
By the light of the new sun
Darkness, light
Some creatures prefer
To live in one
And some creatures
Live in the other
It isn’t like one way is good
And the other is evil
I say sleep when you’re tired
Play whenever you wish
I love both and I love
The wrinkles and bald spots
Of becoming an older man
There is a time coming
When my darkness will arrive
And stay

James Lee Jobe

The garden of the world has no limit except in your mind.

Rumi

Blind Faith - Can't Find My Way Home

Editing poems at night
Under the influence of hot chocolate
Life opens like a flower

James Lee Jobe

Think for yourself and question authority.

Timothy Leary

Grandkid

        The beggar breaks the rocks, and I eat them. My soul is nourished only by stone and great lament. By sorrow. Every day lasts for a thousand years. At dusk, I give the beggar a few pride-less coins, just barely enough to keep him until morning. Throughout the cold night I lie on my back and search the dark sky for a friend. Just a friend. I shiver, and my heart is empty. I have nowhere to go.

James Lee Jobe

We are always in transition. If you can just relax with that, you'll have no problem. 

Chogyam Trungpa

Rebekka Gudleifsdottir

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The craft of communication.

Jim Haller

I try to leave some emptiness in life

It feels right to do so

Only one day happens at a time

And that works for me

I can see through my life

To my death, and likewise

I can see through my death

And so better enjoy living

Just now the sunrise grew

And covered all of the sky

How lovely

James Lee Jobe

Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time.

Timothy Leary

Jim Haller

Language is a tool

The craft of communication

Human to human, speaking, listening

A thought, an idea, a need expressed

A desire spoken, an answer for a question

The work of this tool is neverending

James Lee Jobe

A genius is the one most like himself.

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk - Solo Monk (album)

Why would you even want a rebirth

What would it mean but a re-death also

Lots of re-suffering

Breathe the air now

That you are alive right now is miracle enough

James Lee Jobe

When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say, "Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere."

Shunryu Suzuki 

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It's too late to die young.

Laila Shawa, Palestine

The old lamp is bright

Cutting through the darkness

And I have lit the incense

I prepared a simple meal

All awaits your arrival

The early evening passes by

Slowly

Like an old man on the highway

But no knock comes to the door

And the old man on the highway

Is me

__________

The mid-day rainstorm fed the trees and the garden

The afternoon sun broke through and fed my heart

__________

Eight years old   

I was sleeping on a roll-away bed 

At my grandparents’ house

My father gone who knows where

I used to pray for Jesus to take me in the night

That I would fall asleep and not wake up

Not ever

But no Jesus no answer 

Time passed as it does 

I lived a life like anyone else 

Some sorrow  some joy

And now I am in my sixties

It’s too late to die young

Looking in the mirror 

I see my Uncle Earl looking back at me 

Oh well, I always liked Earl

He used to call me partner

With that Texas accent of his

James Lee Jobe

The Rolling Stones, I'm Just Your Fool
(Little Walter cover) 

LINK: Armageddon, a poem by Taije Silverman

__________

Happiness means feeling you are on the right path every moment. You don't need to arrive at the end of the path in order to be happy.

Thich Nhat Hanh

__________

You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.

Abbie Hoffman

Laila Shawa, Palestine

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The earth when she shakes and rolls.

Hokusai, Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry, 1834

_____

This is the taste of darkness
The taste of metal in the air
The taste of electricity
You close your eyes
To the sunlight of noon
The taste of your eyes
The taste of sunlight
The taste of day
Walking with your eyes closed
No they're covered
And one arm is reaching out
The taste of walkin
The taste of an arm in the air.
Now it is night
You can taste the darkness
Like metal, like electricity
This is the taste of being alive

_____

        Tree branches flailing in the wind. Crows loudly claiming territory. The river when it’s in a hurry. The sky is thundering about a coming storm. The earth when she shakes and rolls. Leather shoes dancing over a hardwood floor. The automobile horn under an angry hand. The chattering squirrel. The orca lowing in the deep. Things and beings speak. Ssh. Listen.

The sun, the moon, the stars;

They're all silent.

I'm sure there is a lesson in that.

_____

        I am building a tiny bed inside of the bed I already have, so that the dream people can sleep when I sleep. You know, those strangers that you see sometimes in dreams. I’ll make the bed from the softest of yawns and nice thoughts, and cover that with sweet sentences that help the dream people feel relaxed and at home. Good night, it's time for bed. 


James Lee Jobe

Slim Harpo, I'm A King Bee

____________________

RIVER

Li Po, the little boat is gone
that carried you ten thousand 'li'
downstream past the gibbons calling
all the way from both banks and they
too are gone and the forests they
were calling from and you are gone
and every sound you heard is gone
now there is only the river
that was always on its own way

W.S. Merwin

____________________

There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way.

Thich Nhat Hanh

_____

I have just three things to teach: implicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.

 Lao Tzu

Khaleesi, our grandkid. And fine dining.

Hi. James Lee here. 

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            Thanks, JLJ 

Cafe Con Leche

Alexandra Grant, Antigone 3000

Showers
Then breaks with some sunlight
And then showers again
The sky has immense power
And so commands our actions
By what it will and what it will not
Allow us to do and yet remain dry
Showers - sunlight - showers
From below we watch and wait
Raindrops tumbling from the sky

____________________

Drinking good strong coffee (cafe con leche)
And listening to Antonio Sanchez play the drums
What is tomorrow
I don’t know

____________________

Nighttime is a prison cell
Daytime is a smoke in the prison yard
Dangerous
After 10 months the pandemic still grows
And it’s the people that recede
Time is the jailer
The sentence is death
Or life

James Lee Jobe

____________________

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

____________________

Staying the night at Summit-Top Temple

You can reach out to touch the stars I will speak no more than a low whisper I'm afraid I’ll wake the people of heaven

Li Po

____________________

The ocean of suffering is immense, but if you turn around, you can see the land.

Thich Nhat Hanh

"I thought I would be understood without words."
Vincent van Gogh, Blossoming Pear Tree

____________________

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James 

Sunlight filters down through the branches of the trees.

The world is spinning such as it does
And the voice of a woman is lifted in song
Her sound has a strength, a richness
And I feel as if she is connected to the earth
By rock and by water, held firm by the wind
Her voice could even be the wind
A single drum joins in, a heartbeat
The rumble of earthquake, the throb of volcano
And just as I am joined to this music
A thousand women join in, a million
And the pounding of drums takes me
The power of the sacred feminine
Lifts my heart, lightens my load
And, as if magic held me, slowly
I merge with the others in the dance

James Lee Jobe

Think enough and you won't know anything.

Kenneth Patchen

You must have taken the wrong road
You have arrived at a place where people eat filth
And live in pens
Like pigs
The smell is terrible
You want to go back the way you came
But the road has one-way traffic only
There is no going back
You can stay
Or travel on
Those are the choices
From the pens
You are called by naked people
Covered with their own mess
One of them knows your name
And says it again and again
Returning to road
Feeling lost you slowly begin to walk away
First the right foot
Then the left
Then the right again
Sunlight filters down through the branches of the trees
Sunlight, beautiful and warm

James Lee Jobe

John Coltrane - Every Time We Say Goodbye

I’d like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.

John Coltrane

Looking inward, I find a valley
Bathed in sunshine
Looking outward, I find a valley
Bathed in rain
My, my, how life goes around

James Lee Jobe

Link: Border Wisdom, a poem by Ahmad Alamallah

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James