a pitcher of cool water

That which is threatening to the ego is liberating for the heart.

Amaro Bhikkhu

Emil Kosa Jr

Open yourself to your life the way a window opens to let in light and air. To welcome life is to meet that which is divine. That which is divine opens her arms and holds you like a lover. Friend, that which is divine is a lover. Open yourself to your life. Don’t wait any longer.

*

You are a pitcher of cool water; the more thirsts you quench, the more you need to be refilled yourself. Is it night? Then be filled with moonlight, starlight, darkness. Is it day? Then raise your arms to the sunlight, the warmth. Praise that which is greater, both within and without.

*

It would be lovely to be be a star  

shining a silver light across the universe   

perhaps dreaming of being a person   

certainly it’s lovely to be a person   

dreaming about being a star 

James Lee Jobe

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James

Somewhere there is an edge to all of this

"What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

 Mary Oliver

Portrait of Pere Tanguy
Vincent van Gogh

The lone hunter stalking the lone deer. Just past sunrise. The sound of a footstep snapping a twig.

*

The rain muddies the far hills, and in the mountains, snow. Down here in the valley the creek rises and feeds the river, which rises and feeds the lake, and then the lake rises against the dam. Downstream past the dam the low places flood, all of the flood gates are open. People watch the water rise with worried expressions.

Somewhere there is an edge to all of this, down in the Delta someplace, right where a slough washes against some reeds, and from all of this energy, the reeds sway in the last bit of wave, all of that energy waning at last. A heron wades in, hungry. A fish has made a ripple, or perhaps an air bubble has risen, and the heron goes there to check it out. It is a long night, wet and cold and full. Finally, the storm passes.

*

In the dream years have passed  

and my late son who died so young 

looks about 50 and is going bald 

and I am furious  

“you faked your death  

you hid from us all these years  

we suffered”  

he smiles and holds me 

and I know it is just another dream of him   

he really is dead    

and I suffer all over again 

and weep on the shoulder of my dead son    I didn’t know that I could grieve in my sleep

James Lee Jobe

Yokoyama Taikan

"Time goes from present to past."

Shunryu Suzuki,

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James 

the dharma is my rock

"Reality has no inside, outside, or middle part." 

Bodhidharma

Julia Ribeiro

Rising at dawn 

I walk the moon home  Keeping an eye on the sky

*

Tapping your fingertip against the drum skin 

Speaking to the creek and waiting years for an answer 

Decades waiting for a replay with any meaning  

Loving another person for a lifetime 

Facing it all together 

Running when the wind is at your back 

Standing still and smiling 

When the wind is on your face 

Making up ridiculous songs and then forgetting them  

Picking up interesting little rocks 

And saving them  Forever

*

The dharma is my rock

And this present moment

is my flower

I love to rise early and sit in silence

Long before the rising sun

James Lee Jobe

Like the craze on porcelain, fine branches

apportion the lonely white sky.

Miyazawa Kenji

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James 

the sound of morning rain

Even birds

don't cry now;

that bloodshot

one-eye may have left the sky.

Miyazawa Kenji

Seung Hwan Chung

                                

It was a stranger’s bed, and it was made out of stones and branches, but it was empty and you were tired—you slept there anyway. Forty days and nights passed before you woke up again, and when you did, you discovered that you had a new name and a new face.

You had walked a long way to get to that bed, across a valley that spelled fresh and clean, and the stranger who owned it was a woman fresh from a shower. She wanted you as much as you wanted her, and so you answered to whatever name she called you.

After making love, you are hungry, nearly starving. You ate the grapes, you ate the bread and hummus, and you licked your fingers clean one at a time. There was no clock. You did not know the time or where you were. What is the difference?

It was a stranger’s bed, and it was made out of stones and branches, and this time you were not alone. Still naked and bearing your touch and your seed, she lay down in the middle of the bed, and you climbed on to join her, circling around and around like a dog.

____________________

Winding the old clock, I ask it
about all of the hours it has shared
with me. No answer,
just the sound of morning rain.

_____________________

Shivering on the north bank,

Putah Creek rolls on under my reflection.

The creek moves along

But my reflection remains still.

A cold winter morning in Winters, California.

____________________

There should be a sentence that accurately describes the world today. 

One simple sentence; if I ever think of it I'll file a copyright.

____________________

I am tame, yet I am wild all the same. Think of me as you would think of a seedling tree in your front yard; you didn’t plant it, yet it grows there nonetheless. Will you uproot it or leave it to grow toward the sky, toward the sun, toward the moon? Life is about growth, and life is about about choices. Life is the tame and the wild sharing space together. 

____________________

On the sidewalk past midnight, I wonder what this town would be like if we had monkeys.

James Lee Jobe 

"Meditation is not just a rest or retreat from the turmoil of the stream of the impurity of the world. It is a way of being the stream, so that one can be at home in both the white water and the eddies."

Gary Snyder

Yokoyama Taikan

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a scent of jasmine

"Tear off the mask, your face is glorious."

Rumi

Ana Mutavdzic

Recipe.

Add these things to a mixing 

bowl; a scoopful of blue sky, a sprinkle 

of hope, a dash of a dream 

from years ago. Now add two cups 

of a big smile from someone you love. 

Mix well and serve with panache. 

Enjoy life. 

James Lee Jobe

"The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we are there in the most attentive, caring way. As Mother Teresa said, 'In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.'"

Jack Kornfield

An old man in his backyard.

The Japanese Maple tree lights up a reddish purple under the spotlight of the midday California sun. Standing in my backyard under an opera of birdsong while my doggo sniffs the weeds for traces of the neighbor’s cat. A scent of jasmine blesses the breeze with delight. I have lived the biggest part of my life in the Sacramento Valley, and that’s what blesses me with delight. My home.

James Lee Jobe 

"Don't forget to go through life with a smile on your face. Be easy, kind, and fair to others and life will treat you well. No matter what happens, do your best not to let yourself be bothered by those that surround themselves with negative energy."

William Lee Jobe

Patterns and cycles.

Respect for light

its warmth and its gift of sight

respect for the earth

its patterns and cycles

our home

respect for flora and fauna

that which exists along with us

respect for family and community

the people around us

their love

respect for breath

the food of life

respect for our lives

however impermanent 

James Lee Jobe

The Band, Chest Fever

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James

pedal faster

When I die, let me sleep in the rain that falls on the trees, in the rain that falls on the ocean. Let me sleep easy in the wetness that brings life to the earth.

James Lee Jobe 

Rohana Liang

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. 

When mindfulness embraces those we love, 

they will bloom like flowers. 

Thich Nhat Hanh

A foggy morning 

the wisps float over the cold and empty field

James Lee Jobe 

Stanislav Odyagailo

A young man on the downtown sidewalk
homeless and alone
he appears to be about the age that my late son would be 

so cold this wind of January

James Lee Jobe

Poetry is an orphan of silence. 

The words never quite equal the experience behind them. 

Charles Simic

If you could, would you bicycle to the horizon of the world at night? 

Moving east toward the sunrise? 

Would you open your heart to the starlight above? 

Would you pedal faster to match the passion of your life?

James Lee Jobe

Harry Ally

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corn stalks under a full moon

"Wanting one good organic line, I wrote a thousand sonnets."

Sam Hammill

Juliana Coles

Look at my hands. I am everything my father hated, everything he feared. And look at my eyes. My father is behind my eyes, watching everything I love, knowing the whole while I never needed him, that I will never be what he wanted me to become. Truth is everything. This life belongs to me.

James Lee Jobe 

"The more we learn, the more we realize how much we still don’t know." 

Vanessa R. Sasson

I have never been a farmer, but farmland feels welcoming to me, a green field under a golden sun, or corn stalks under a full moon; these things are a blessing. Thirty-seven years I have lived in this valley. The seasons of the year, the seasons of the crops; these are the seasons of my life. And that, too, is a blessing.

James Lee Jobe 

Emil Kosa Jr

"How can you fix something bad by doing something else bad?"

Brad Warner

That I might peel away the layers of nonsense I have built around myself that hide who I am. That I might know myself before the time of knowing comes to an end, and that I might use that knowledge, such as it is, in a positive manner.

James Lee Jobe 

A poem by the late Jim Harrison:

BROOM

To remember you’re alive

visit the cemetery of your father

at noon after you’ve made love

and are still wrapped in a mammalian

odor that you are forced to cherish.

Under each stone is someone’s inevitable

surprise, the unexpected death

of their biology that struggled hard, as it must.

Now to home without looking back,

enough is enough.

En route buy the best wine

you can afford and a dozen stiff brooms.

Have a few swallows then throw the furniture

out the window and begin sweeping.

Sweep until the walls are

bare of paint and at your feet sweep

until the floor disappears. Finish the wine

in this field of air, return to the cemetery

in evening and wind through the stones

a slow dance of your name visible only to birds.

Jim Harrison, from SONGS OF UNREASON

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a wide splash of stars

My ethics, my sense of morality, my work ethic, my sense of compassion for suffering humanity, all of that comes directly out of the practice of poetry, as does my Buddhist practice. Poetry is a very important element in the history of Buddhism in general and in Zen in particular. It was really Zen that motivated me to change the way I perceive the world.

Sam Hamill

by Kay Nielson (1912)

A late morning rain
raindrops on the roof
the trees raise their arms in thanks
the tomato plants swell with happiness
that’s gaia’s music my friend

-------

That I might learn to replace guilt with humility, fear with courage, anger with forgiveness, greed with generosity. That I might use my time to do some measure of good.

-------

A wide splash of stars above the valley the waxing crescent moon has already set it’s quiet and still the streets are empty the universe is filled by this one moment

------

That which leaves us is gone

that which stays holds tight

the wind 

the water

after they’re gone 

the rock cliffs will hold on awhile

then they’ll be gone too

even the sun will explode

someday

James Lee Jobe

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a man and a lizard

Dewdrop, let me cleanse in your brief sweet waters... these dark hands of life. 

Basho

Sunlight is the smiling face of life, especially just at the moment when life begins a new day. Is it unusual for a man to be in love with the universe, just as it is? It shouldn't be. Here is the water, the air, and the earth. Here is the corner where I can pray. A new day, the sunlight joyously returns; the wren in the jasmine watches.

-----

The lizard is quite brave, like Hannibal,

And he dashes out on the trail right in front of me,

Stops, and looks up at me.

He has stopped me in my tracks.

I drop down to my hands and knees,

And I bring my face very close to his.

He doesn't run. He just cocks his head

And looks back me, and so in this way

We regard one another. A man and a lizard

On a Sierra Nevada trail in the heat of the afternoon.

This is his world, and I grow weary of the encounter

Before he does, and so I stand, say goodbye,

And start walking back down to my own world.

And he dashes off, too,

Back to whatever it is that a lizard does.

-----

There are signs… if you look for them. Species of creatures dying out, a rising sea, a smaller arctic. A feeling of dread on the population, people moving on in fear and desperation. And the answer? It isn’t ‘better politics.' The answer is in our hearts, in our spirits. We need silence. We need emptiness. Friend, what we need is... less.

James Lee Jobe

Street art of me.

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James 

it's ok to forget me

Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.

Gil Scott-Heron

Angela Buron

change can be a subtle thing

and you can learn a lot from your changes

the sacramento valley is a fine teacher

but the lessons are very slow in coming 

you only get a little everyday 

the curling of a leaf 

a scent on the wind

subtle changes for your education 

you have to be sure not to miss any classes

James Lee Jobe

everyone on earth 

should write their own obituary 

just in case

and what would i say 

i jobe a poor poet

born in baltimore 1956 

had a good life

i loved a fine woman 

and raised children with her

lived in a house that was ours together

i helped her plant a garden 

and some fruit trees 

i wasn’t perfect 

and i didn't care to be

the sun  the moon 

the stars  the sky

the earth  

the forests  the rivers 

i loved them all

they entertained me  nourished me 

and i die fulfilled and content 

i hate no one

i love many 

and i don’t mind being forgotten

in the end we all are

James Lee Jobe

I think people should be allowed to do anything they want. We haven't tried that for a while. Maybe this time it'll work. 

George Carlin

Donovan, Season O The Witch

________________________

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James