look at me - I have become the moon

Changing by rising up, climbing.

I am climbing up to the moon on a ladder made of rope, 

Indeed, I am now climbing all the way to Heaven. 

My sins are far below me, and my forgiveness is above. 

And anyway, I forgive myself, so I am free. 

Now I am passing the stars, one at a time, 

And I swallow some of these stars, 

And so I hold them in my body. 

And now I am also a star. 

I have changed by rising up, climbing. 

Look at me - I have become the moon, 

I have become Heaven. Yes, I am Heaven.  

Goodbye. 

-for Susan Kelly-DeWitt- 

james lee jobe

Understanding change is not freeing ourselves in a fixed way, but it may help us to see there are different types of change. 

Martine Batchelor, “Impermanence as Liberation”

So perhaps naked, the earth opens up and swallows you whole. 

Wounds of rocks, wounds of dirt, 

But not of the flesh. 

Underground rivers 

Untouched by the other humans. 

It isn't so bad. 

Worms, untroubled by thought, 

Digging in the deep. Flesh memory 

Of a life below. Perhaps 

Naked, the earth takes you back. 

And even then the imagination 

Is free, rising up, unencumbered, 

Taking flight like a bird of prey. 

james lee jobe

LINK: New Black, a poem by Bettina Judd

What The Water Knows, a poem by Sam Hamill

Sam Hamill's death at 74 saddened me greatly. I never met the man, but we communicated, first through email, as his Poet's Against The War site was so wonderful (after the invasion of Iraq), and I had a poem there, plus I put on an anti-war reading in Sacramento and participated in some other anti-war readings; then through social media after we connected there. Sam had cancer and didn't have the coverage to fight it properly, and had gone down to Mexico for medical help. A helluva guy, he is missed by many. -jlj

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james