After Tu Fu

A deep hush spreads over
The empty winter camp
In the frigid afternoon
Growing later.
Everything knows what is coming.
The roar in the pinecrowns
Has ceased;
The scrappy cedar branches
Grow still.
In this short short day
The sky darkens.
Then out of nowhere
The first light flakes arrive,
A quiet joy
Leaps in the heart.

My Epitaph

"You better have that looked at"

lowbrow vs. techie

The day my cellphone
Began giving me trouble
I strolled into the AT & T store
And asked the clerk for help.
"For not much more
You can upgrade to a Smartphone
That offers you so much more"--
He zigged & zagged at my naievete.
"That's alright," I offered,
"My dumbphone suits me perfectly"

the mythology of "Progress"

      I suppose most of my reflexive resistance to technology per se (pursued often for the sheer curiosity of where it might take us) is the widening degree to which it REMOVES our minds & senses from the sublime Garden of Light, Air & Water which each of receives at birth- like engineering can deliver a higher heaven?

brinksmanship

At Zacatito

we paddled our slender kayaks

half a mile offshore

to where the sea gods were breathing,

silvery plumes of exhale

hung shining in the late sunlight,

were we at our peril

gallivanting with a pod of 40 ton humpbacks

in the pelagic wilderness?

Maybe not,

but we could not be certain,

and such brinksmanship

easily translated into high adventure...

w/ Bill, Mexico 1999

snow 'ku

A kid again
   Catching snowflakes
      On my tongue

Hills-Flat

In a far corner
Of the lumberyard

Behind the stacks of 2 x 12
and racks or rebar

Broken palletes
Burn in a blue oildrum

Yardhands stomp & swear
Rubbing hands

Under a swirl of light snow

handyman #156

Rather than drive home
And fetch the ladder I forgot

I take wild chances
Balancing on lawn chair & flowerpot


-nevada city

willow valley

Between measurements
   the roof carpenters
      argue astrology

-willow valley

Kids scatter-
   backyard home-run
     through kitchen window

-penn valley

Lake Vera docks

On my open page
   lands an exquisite
      blue dragonfly