the wolves are getting closer

Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.

Albert Einstein

Your eyes are a pump, bringing up fire from hell. 

‘the woods are beautiful, also the dark animals, also man’ 

-Georg Trakl

From the sound of your footsteps crunching 

through the woods comes a certain clue 

that the wolves use to track you down. 

As you walk your eyes are on the leafy ground 

in search of other clues, symbols, or mushrooms. 

Your eyes sound like music, or like the cries 

of a hungry child. -- Is that correct? 

No, it is the sound of the final breath  

of your alcoholic father. 

No, it is the sound of an old plow 

cutting through the hard earth. 

Your eyes have that power, that music. 

Your eyes are a pump, bringing up fire from hell. 

and now the woods are thicker, there is no path, 

and you are lost. The trees have strange colors, 

blue and purple and white, 

and they reach out for you, 

the hoary branches are their arms, 

and you struggle to get past. 

It is very dark, you didn't notice 

that the sun had been going down, 

and you wonder if the wolves are getting closer. 

And they are. 

These woods have a name, 

but you don't know that, 

and you don't care. 

James Lee Jobe

Why not begin to free ourselves from attachment to the body, which is disappearing anyway? 

Kate Lila Wheeler

Start Walking

         'a thorny desert surrounds the city'

            -Georg Trakl

Somewhere, there is an oasis. Which way?

Don't know. This way, that way, any way.

Every direction leads to an endless wasteland

of dust and death. An unforgiving sun. Thorns

like knives, like sorrow. And in the city people

live with little hatreds eating up their souls.

This one prays wrong, that one looks wrong,

another loves wrong. So many different hatreds,

like heart-worms, like maggots. Like death.

Darkened souls that wither, and burn,

and cry out, and damn them all anyway.

Which way? Don't know. This way, that way,

any way. But there is no point in staying here

even one more day. Brother, sister, protect

your soul. A thorny desert surrounds the city.

Let's start walking. There is an oasis out there,

somewhere, and I am damn well going to find it.  

James Lee Jobe

Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir

Having plenty of stimuli makes it easy for us to distract ourselves from what we’re feeling. But when there is silence, all these things present themselves clearly. 

Thich Nhat Hanh

I’m getting older. I like being at home, cooking, listening to Miles Davis. Maybe watch a ballgame. I don’t need to go to Topeka or Newark. I sit and think things over, forget it all, and then re-think it all over again. Who cares? You never know how many times you’ll get to orbit this ol’ sun. Why not just relax?

Please conside supporting this humble blog with a small donation through the Buy Me A Coffee link below. Many thanks.

James