Like the Sun - #66

Have you seen the great canyons,
carved hundreds of feet through stone
into the earth?

It was only flowing water and time
that achieved such a spectacular result.

But on any given day,
you won’t see much evidence
of this occurring.

It can be useful to picture your efforts
in life similarly.

Each day you put effort into
your work, a bit here and a bit there.

Most often there is no immediate drama as a result,
but sometimes you can see the canyon-like effect,
stretching backwards in time.

You don’t need to do more
than to be persistent in your efforts to achieve something.

Indeed, there is hardly a way
you could force all the effort
required for spectacular things
into one day.


-Jim DuBois

[This is an excerpt from my book, Like The Sun, from the section about getting stuff done. Get the whole book]

no time to wait

There is no time to wait, no new day coming with the promise of liberation.
There is no time to wait for the right words,
no time to wait for the world to be ready.

There is no time to wait for audiences or art
No time to wait for fear to go away
No time to consider whether your actions will be right or wrong

    no time for things to be finished
    no time to wait for someone else to approve or say I love you
No time to rehearse for tommorrow

no time but imperfect now



-Jim DuBois
c1994 (originally written on the inside of old raisin boxes)

Let Tomorrow Come

Let tomorrow come
    because I’ve polished today
    and stashed it
    in my trophy case,
    with an engraved label
    reading:
                    ‘Yes!
                              Yes!
                                        Yes!’

Let tomorrow come
    because I’ve got my ear
    to the ground
    and the energy of life
    is relaying your heartbeat
    to me from wherever it is
        you’ve gone.


-Jim DuBois
Oct 6, 2000

Computer summary of my older poems

I was putting together a book of poetry for publication on Lulu.com, and I tried the executive summary tool, just to see what it would come up with. Here's the result, which I enjoy:


            some-times
Shirt,
Shirt,
Shirt,

shirt,
Including time

it’s time
      in time.
      if I lived


-Jim DuBois + computer
Nov 10, 2009

Half an Hour

Half an hour
between one thing

and the next.

How can I
live these moments well?


-Jim DuBois
Oct 22, 2009

The Economy of Memory

I'm watching a sea of static on TV
    late at night

I'm talking to my girlfriend on the phone

I'm writing a poem
    and finishing it later

I'm living in a tent behind Hampshire College

I'm going nowhere

I'm standing on the balcony of F2,
    going nowhere

I'm living on Bridge Street in Northampton

I'm thinking about thinking

I'm thinking about memory

I'm taking off my shirt

I'm looking at the clock

I'm wondering how it will end
    and when it began

I'm floating, a tiny black-eyed fetus
    in amniotic fluid

I'm making notes for a future poem

I'm learning to write the alphabet
    by tracing sandpaper letters

I'm writing a story for the first time
    in my life

I am six

I am twenty-five

I am thirty-four

I'm telling her about myself

I'm using her attention
    to search through my memory,
    to reconstruct myself
    from different angles

I'm telling you about telling her

I'm remembering remembering



-Jim DuBois
Dec 13, 2003

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

A World Full of Strangers

Time cracks the face of youth,
time cracks the images of your idols
– you’re not in love with
a person any longer,
just images
from years ago.

Even the people you knew,
you don’t still know,
they’re just distorted memories.

Who do you know?
Who do you think you know?
‘Cause you only know
who they just were.


-Jim DuBois
2005?

Like a Radio Wave (Sept 2002)

Like a radio wave,
  moving steadily outward
    into the universe

Like a radio wave,
  or an echo,
    or light travelling from distant stars,
      informing viewers of events
        that are already well past
          in history

Like a radio wave,
  having no fixed point,
    only appearing
  to exist
    when there is a radio

Like language,
  encoded and encryted
    meanings –
      meaningless
        without a listener

Like a moment of history,
    or a book,
  sending out ripples of influence
    into the future

Has the moment passed?
    …
  Or just some of it?

Like evolution and procreation,
  providing an unbroken line,
    a varied but cohesive system of life forms

-- One moment,
                many appearances

Just one moment
  without a beginning or end
Just one self-modifying,
  everlasting moment,

Expanding like the universe,
  being picked up once in a while
    by various
      sensors and receptors.

Just a moment of existence,
    like a radio wave,
      moving outward.



-Jim DuBois

Mt. Tom (Sept 17, 2005)

Wandering in the remnants of time
the rotting tree trunks
the glacier-strewn rocks

Lost in the aftermath of the past
the decomposing leaves
the cracked basalt boulders

Even the new trees
root
in the bones
of their ancestors


-Jim

Randomly Regarding Infinity (Oct 1 2005)

Randomly regarding infinity

Compiling lists of words

Lost in the wilderness of time

I talk to dogs and other mammals




-Jim

Hollow Metal Phantoms (Jan 25, 2006)

Hollow metal phantoms
hurtling towards oblivion

The roots of the pea plants
tangled around my heart

Wasting and saving time
vanish like ghosts in light



-Jim

Step by Step (April 28, 2005)

Step by step
word by word
penny by penny

bite by bite
stone by stone
moment by moment



-Jim

The Opposite of Wasting Time (Jan 24 2006)

I guess
the opposite
of wasting time
is hoarding time,

pinching off seconds like pennies,
counting minutes
on the balance sheet
of your life
and hoping they are all
wisely invested,
well-spent,
not wasted on frivolous things,
or luxuries,
or anything intangible,
like happiness.



     -Jim

Incandescent Time (March 11 2007)

Incandescent time,
burning the edges of reality,
softly glowing
as it consumes eternity.

Incandescent time,
revealed by memory and motion.

Incandescent time,
I offer you this moment.



     -Jim

Marking Time (April 16 2008)

Marking time
by people walking
by returned phone calls
by day and night.

Marking time
by growth of trees
by clouds
by the lifespan of the sun.


-Jim