Falling in Love is Like...

Falling in love is like
when you first
come in from the cold
and you can't quite
feel your toes and fingers yet.

Falling in love is like
waking up from
a bad dream
when you're still
panicked that
the crazy/scary/sad thing
might be true.

Falling in love
is a huge disaster
for my cherished
sense of unwantability.

Falling in love
is ruining my plan
to bitterly face
middle age on my own.

Falling in love is like
waiting for the sunrise,
that part where you're like,
"C'mon, c'mon, any minute now! When? When?"

Falling in love is like
walking on your foot
when its fallen asleep
- before circulation returns
every step is agony.

Falling in love
is dangerous
to my comfortable loneliness

Falling in love
is devastating
to my lack of
self-esteem.


-Jim DuBois
Dec 25, 2015

The time I really wish I could fly

The time

I really wish

I could fly

is at the end

of these short

Fall days

when the last

bits of sunshine

are slowly climbing

the library walls, 

coloring the

tops of trees

and lighting up

the clouds like a painting. 

- Jim DuBois

Nov 13, 2015

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

"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

Dreamscape #1, Page 4

- Jim DuBois

Everywhere

The sun shines everywhere.
Love is moments away.

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

Life

Sun-tracking

Sitting in the cafe,
waiting for the sun to shift,
or shadow to cover me,
I am surrounded by
busy laptop people.

I don't think
anyone realized
I was using my teacup
and notebook
as a sun-tracker.


-Jim DuBois
Feb 20, 2012

What Was Revealed

Like someone turning up the volume
    when you didn't know the music was playing

Like scattering clouds from
    the face of the sun

Like a thousand folded days
    stuffed into fragile boxes
    and thrown to the wind,
        blooming like instant flowers
            wherever they land,
        growing like vines
            that hold the world together.


-Jim DuBois
April 21, 2004

My Church

My church
is the sun
and the dirt
and now.


-Jim

Semi-sweet broken hearts

Semi-sweet
      broken hearts

absorbing heat
      from the landscape

of lost love

because somedays

the sun isn't enough


-Jim DuBois
Aug 27, 2008

Like the Sun - #1

The sun!

Radiating warmth to everyone,
sustaining life on earth,
needing no credit,
exerting no extra credit.


You can be like that:

Doing work that comes easily and naturally to you,
improving the lives of those around you,
changing situations for the better with your presence.



- Jim DuBois

[This is an excerpt from my book, Like The Sun, from the section about relating to people. Get the whole book]

We Will Remember You

We will remember you,
said the stars and the rain

We will remember you,
said the flames of the sun

We will remember you,
said the mass of humanity.

We will place you
in our collected memories
and pass you on
    and on
        and on



-Jim DuBois
June 12, 2010

Paladin

Paladin with shining heart
emerges into the sun
-- the world is saved.

- Jim DuBois
Oct 24, 2008

Old Cat

Look at the
O-L-D
cat lying in the sun

Look at the
green green grass

Look at the Cat

Look at the Sun

Sun
Sun
Sun

Cat
Cat
Cat


-Jim DuBois
Nov 21, 2003

Face the Sun

Turn your face to the sun
once more,
for you truly are
a being of light,
come to life
because of explosions
in a star.


-Jim DuBois
Aug 11, 2009

Ordinary Days on Planet Earth

The light from the sun
travels to earth every day,
soaks into the ground,
        the dirt,
        the water,
        the rocks,

and the plants burst upwards
in a multitude of colors

and the animals grow
and change
and evolve,
wandering over the land
and in the sea

and the people
are simply starlight
with brains and hands

they create marvelous art and music

they solve incredible problems
with knowledge, ingenuity
and vast imaginations

they invent technology
to communicate with each other
and transform the lives
of billions

and though they
don't always know it,
they are
        striving striving striving
to be good,
and kind
to one another.


-Jim DuBois
Aug 11, 2009

I've Lost Track of Time

I've lost track of time
I've lost track of day and night
I've come to the edge of town
to sit and think
and apparently write some poems

I've lost track of what little ambition I had
I've lost track of my desire
I'm enjoying the sun and day downtown


-Jim DuBois
March 14, 2009

Another Short Poem

Sittin' here,
doin' nothin',
it's all
Sun and Now
and Whatever

-Jim DuBois

What To Do Next (Jan 11, 2009)

"I'm a free man
and it doesn't matter
what I do right now,"
I thought to myself
and it completely
left me stumped
about what to do next,
so I stood on the corner
by the car place,
spit into the snow
and watched the shiny fringe
flutter in the sun.


-Jim DuBois