How I used to write poems

Like the sun
Like gravity and hurricanes
Like the first day of spring
Like the first snowflake of winter
Like the smell of rain on warm pavement
Like the secret fort in the stone wall from long ago
Like those early friendships
Like the ever-expanding universe
Like a radio-wave
Like first love
Like possibilities
Like nothingness


-Jim DuBois
April 12, 2015

What is actual motivation?

How much
of "giving a shit"
is fueled
by fear, desperation and urgency,
and how much
by actual
simple motivation?

What is actual motivation?

(Yes, it's one of
those kind of
spring afternoons)


-Jim DuBois
March 11, 2015

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

At a Loss

47 degrees,
I guess I'll go appease
my restlessness

I'll go get some floss
since I'm at a loss
for what to do


-Jim DuBois
April 6, 2013

Looking for Something to do

Looking for something
to do
on Saturday afternoon

- a beautiful sunny
spring afternoon.

All this town,
filled with nothingness
once you stop consuming.

Empty, pointless
spring afternoon.

The real story?
or the thawing numbness
of winter?


-Jim DuBois
March 29, 2013

First Walk Back

First walk back
  from Florence,

March, spring

fragments, regrowth


-Jim DuBois
March 10, 2013

Spring Peepers

I heard the first spring peepers
the night after
_______ got put
in the psyche ward
at Cooley-dick

Somehow those little frogs
didn't get the news
that life has a hard edge,
somehow those little frogs
kept singing


-Jim DuBois
April 2, 1998

Epic Tag-Sale Poem *

1.

Jenny, you're away
but tag-sale season started today.
I did what I had to do:
I went without you.

I didn't get as far
as we would've with your car.
I got some books and some games
but by myself it just wasn't the same.


2.

I remember --
last summer --
driving around to tag-sales
with you
hunting for bargains
and perfect satisfaction.

Now, even though
I've almost finished
the toothpaste
and gotten rid of
the weird literary magazines,
I think our hunt
succeeded.


3.

Coming back to town
late Saturday afternoon
I saw many signs
for huge tag-sales
with great bargains.

Neither you nor I
could go to them
since we were
separately
out-of-town.


-Jim DuBois
Pt 1 - April 29, 2006,
Pt 2 & 3 - June 19, 2006

---

* A Tag Sale means a Yard Sale or Garage Sale, which is where people put things they want to sell out in their yard or garage. I picked up the term "Tag Sale" from living in Western MA, and have not heard it elsewhere.

Great themes in poetry

1. Quit procrastinating,
         you’ll be dead soon


2. Flower = vagina,
         please have sex with me


3. This government sucks,
         but I can’t say that directly


4. I am lonely, angry,
         (fill-in the blank), etc.


5. This poem
         is a self-reflective poem


6. I’m a fairly clever intellectual


7. I actually love you,
         and could tell you over and over


8. It’s spring,
         life is filled with beauty, possibility and newness


9. It’s autumn,
         life is rich but impermanent

-Jim DuBois
March 20, 2005

Three Snakes

I saw these three snakes
and a ton of frogs
and it reminded me
of when
things like that
really mattered


-Jim DuBois
April 24, 2007

Spring

Dirty snow melt-off
trickles down the drain
  - spring is here!

-Jim