Chasing Sunsets

I remember
getting up late
in the winter one year
and going out to chase
the last bit
of sun
and running into you.

We went to Fire and Water
and sat there for a minute
before inspiration struck
and we decided
to go climb Bare Mountain.

Even though
it was pretty late,
we thought if we rushed,
we could make it to
the top for the sunset.

Of course, it was January
and there was slick
ice-covered snow
all over that steep trail
and we had to drive
a half hour to start,
but we went
and ran up that trail,
and fell over and
slid back a lot,
and missed the sunset
but reached the top
and then falteringly
made our way down
in the dark.


And it turned into
a thing we did
that winter.

Not planned,
always at the last minute
when we bumped into
each other in town,
we'd say "I bet
we can make it up
______ mountain
and see the sunset
if we rush!
Let's go!"

And we'd get
partway up
and notice the sun
going down,
and head off-trail,
straight up the hillside,
punching holes in the
ice crust to keep
our hold,
and rushing, and slipping
and sending ice-chunks
zipping down behind us
and never make the top
in time
and laughing at each other
when we fell over
and over
on the way down.

We never, never
saw the sunset
from a peak,
but it was
such a good winter.


-Jim DuBois
Dec 22, 2014

Why "Return of the Slacker"?

I wrote a paragraph about why I called this blog Return of the Slacker, and put it on a permanent page of this blog, here.

Still Beautiful

Sometimes
it is
still beautiful
despite everything


-Jim DuBois
Oct 29, 2014

That Patio

That patio
outside the hospital
where you
were born
- no better place
exists.


-Jim DuBois
Oct 29, 2014

Sacred Places

I listened
to this Lakota guy
in Amhersst
one time,
and he said,

"Spirituality is not something mystical.
The fact that the world exists is spiritual.
You want to do something spiritual?
Go plant a tree."

And that stuck with me
when I went
to the dentist
a while later.

There they were taking care of
the actual existing world
and helping people
live better lives
by taking care of their teeth
and it was suddenly
the most spiritual place
I could imagine.

Later times,
at the doctor
and the hospital,
I saw them
in a similar light,
as sacred places,
where humans helped
other humans
with the most spiritual
thing of all:
their actual physical being.


-Jim DuBois
Oct 29, 2014

How to be a Hero

It's those moments
where you make
the right choice,
and do the hard work,
whether anyone
but yourself
knows it or not.

There might be no fanfare,
no reward,
no recognition
and maybe the majority
of the battle
takes place
inside your head
where your courage
is fighting with
your fears.

The world
will probably
never know of you
and your moments
of goodness
but you should
live like a hero anyway
because that is
the nature of
your spirit.


-Jim DuBois
Oct 15, 2014

Unexpected consequences from talking to you on the phone yesterday afternoon

At that particular time of day
I could see the dust
that had built up
below the radiator
I'd missed it for years, I guess

So the next day
I broke out
the big sponge
I'd been saving
for no particular reason
and I cleaned up
all that dust

and then I realized
that cleaning my toilet,
which I'd been meaning to do
for a while,
would go much faster and easier
with the big sponge

so I cleaned the toilet too
and afterwards realized
that this whole
chain of events
was a perfect thing
to write about

and that sometimes
we don't see the chains
so clearly,
but they are always there.


-Jim DuBois
Sep 22, 2014
(composed in blog)

"Miracle Cure"

-Jim DuBois

A Small Tool - Blackout Poem

-Jim DuBois

The Living Dead - Blackout Poem

-Jim DuBois

Art is Artifacts of Intelligence

-Jim DuBois
Sept 7, 2014

I think it's the same

I think it's the same,
I think it's the same,
I think it's the same,
I think it's the same
old thing as yesterday,
but it never is.


-Jim DuBois
July 2, 2014

"Waking up"

Step 1: Light

Step 2: Air

Step 3: Cook a yam

Step 4: listen to
birds tweeting
outside my window

Step 5: Write down
these reminders of
wonder and beauty.


June 15, 2014
-Jim DuBois

Love, Mustard, or Sex

How long can _____ last?

Does _____ leave a bad taste in your mouth
when it goes bad?

Can _____ break your heart?

Can _____ make your sandwiches taste better?

Can _____ make your stomach hurt?

Can _____ drive you to make art?


-Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1, Final Page

-Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1, Page 8

-Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1, Page 7

-Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1, Page 6

-Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1, Page 5

-Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1, Page 4

- Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1, Page 3

-Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1, page 2

-Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1

I had this idea back in 1998, to make a rough booklet featuring small snippets of dreams I've had. The other day, 16 years later, I finished it. Sometimes it takes that long I guess.

This is the cover.


This is page 1.


-Jim DuBois

No more true self

No more true self,
No more inherent nature

No simple identity,
No static personality

Complex being, instead,
composed of now,
of free thoughts
and delusions,
right perceptions and wrong

Nothing more
    to achieve
        to be complete


-Jim DuBois
May 4, 2014

Wade in the Mill River

2 chipmunks, a duck
and the second wade in the Mill river
of the season.
Now, waiting
for almost anything
to happen.


-Jim DuBois
May 14, 2010

Toothpaste Tube

Toothpaste tube,

on the floor,
in my pocket,
on the table,

for a few days,
reminding me
to get more...

how many last drops
did I squeeze
outta that thing?


-Jim DuBois
May 4, 2014

Nothing's Wrong!

What am I doing?
What are any of us doing,
living in
a hazy pseudo-history
created by
desperate governments
and
senseless corporations
while the
illusion of democracy
grows thinner
as
oil barons
purchase formerly elected
positions
and gas and chemical giants
try to convince us
    nothing's wrong
        nothing's wrong
            nothing's wrong!


-Jim DuBois
April 21, 2014

Everywhere

The sun shines everywhere.
Love is moments away.

-Jim DuBois
March 12, 2012 - April 9, 2014

Strange night peace, again

Strange night peace, again.
What is going on?
I'm crying and ___ is watching over me.


-Jim DuBois
March 21, 2012

Late night peace

Late night peace.
____ is with me,
whatever that means.


-Jim DuBois
Mar 20, 2012

It's All About Rhythm

-Jim DuBois
March 2014

Watching the Ink Dry

-Jim DuBois

Poetry books!

If you have liked reading my poems, you can get printed books of them, or ebooks, here.


Get one of these, and see more at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/excalibur2099

Like Hearing Echoes

Within the clusters of mental and physical elements

Seeing the animated matter we call human life -
Almost like hearing echoes
of thoughts

echoes
reverberating, rippling
in the material world
outside the mind


-Jim DuBois
A while ago?

I’m putting chairs away

I’m putting chairs away
in the boathouse
You’re giving away his clothes

I’m putting swings away
in the garage
You’re selling his car

Tomorrow, we move back
form the lake
Yesterday, you brought
his urn
down to Northampton


-Jim DuBois
Sept 18, 2010

Life

and to prepare

I went out
to where the
old gods
could still hear me,
and I
left your name
with them.

Then I
burned down the world
to save you
from yourself,
to purify myself,
and to
prepare for battle.


-Jim DuBois
March 1, 2012

The Fire

"I finally got my wish."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"You know how I wished
my house would burn down
and then I wouldn't
have to worry
about all the crap
I've been collecting
and feel trapped by?
Well, it just happened."

It was just
your defensive humor
and good attempt
to handle a shock,
because really,
it sucked
and who knows
what to do
in reaction
to these things?

We talked some more
and I decided
I would raise some money
for you over the internet,
which I had never tried before,
but it worked out
that I raised $2500
in a few days
and the whole thing
popped me out of
my sense of powerlessness
and made me see myself
in a fresh light
and made me grateful
for the chance
to come to your aid
because I think
we're all really heroes
on the inside,
waiting for a chance
to do good,
to change a part
of the world
for the better
and I'm glad
I saw this chance
and took it.


-Jim DuBois
Jan 28, 2014, written about an event that took place in December 2012.

Still with those two dogs

I lay there with the two dogs,
watching them sleep on the floor
in the hallway.

The older one stretched up
and then lay down again,
and I saw the tiredness
in his scrawny legs,
and saw the scraggliness of his coat
which happens to old dogs.

I thought about him as a puppy,
how energetically he chased
my brother and me from room to room,
and we would jump up together on the big chair,
- since we were little too -
as he came rushing in.

He's really lasted a long time,
hasn't he?
Despite the way we all
ignore him a little more lately,
despite years of sleeping in hallways,
despite the advance of age,
he keeps living well.

The other dog isn't as old
and isn't as spirited.

If he didn't have
the first dog for company
(I think of them as brothers)
he wouldn't make it.

The younger dog
is fatter than I remember him
and he whimpers as I pet him.

Then I woke up
and remembered:
those dogs died
a long time ago.

But,
I guess I'm still there sometimes,
still pleased to be with those dogs,
to be just another living thing,
resting in some random spot,
not left out of the tapestry of life,
not forgotten,
bur preserved by the fleetingness
of the moment.


-Jim DuBois
May 30, 2002
Jan 22, 2014

Relaxing in the late afternoon

Relaxing in the late afternoon
in January,
watching the dusk deepen,
I think of those days
you told me about
where you'd only
work up enough ambition
to reach the doorknob
but not enough to know
whether you'd make it
out of the room or not,
and I appreciate your lack of effort
because these days
nobody takes the time
to stay still for long.


-Jim DuBois
Jan 13, 2014

Your house, without you

Your house, without you
I stopped by for some bread
The screen door clicks shut


-Jim DuBois
May 13, 2010

That story about how I only ate fruit for nine months and lived in a tent in the woods behind Hampshire College (parts I, II, II)

This is the beginning of a poem that has 22 parts and 25 photos. It is about my life from about 20 years ago. It took me that long to be able to reflect on it well.

If you want to get a full color printed copy on 8 1/2 x 11 inch pages, go here.

Or click this button:

See my other printed books for sale.

-Jim DuBois
Jan 2013