something essential

I don't know
if I've got this story
exactly right,
because it didn't happen
to me,
and I heard it
many years ago,
but I am sure
I retained
the essence of it.

My friend Juan,
who I think
was descended from
old Mayan kings,
had disappeared
from society for a while,
by hiding out
down below
those iconic cliffs,
on that beach
in California,
where he met this
Vietnam vet
who lived in a cave
and hunted fish
with a spear launcher
made with an old
bicycle inner tube.

Above them,
atop the cliff,
there was
a Buddhist monastery,
and Juan used to climb up
and pick fruit
from their garden
while they sat there
meditating
among the plants,
and they never
moved or said anything.

And for me,
that image captures
something essential
and beautiful
about life
that is hard to define.


-Jim DuBois
September 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

Crossing a Lake

Another blackout poem.

-Jim DuBois

you can't reach me

Oops!
My phone died

Now,
I'm out where
you
can't reach me,
a poet
watching the rain

Actually,
I left my phone
behind
on purpose.


-Jim DuBois
Nov 8, 2012

abandonded

-Jim DuBois
1990s?

You Again

You again,
returned after
so many years,
floating with me
in kayaks on the lake,
letting me relax,
letting me talk
    and be myself,
a true friend,
a true friendship,
in a world
    that needs them badly.


-Jim DuBois
July 15, 2012

Some Days

Some days
all you need are
some friends
and some ocean waves
to jump in

-Jim DuBois
June 30, 2012

Yes, the Rain

There is a first time
we each heard the rain,
or felt the wind,
or saw the sun.

Even now,
there are four new infants
who can't yet wonder
"what is rain?"
or
"why is there rain?"

They can just
hear it.


-Jim DuBois
Aug 15, 2011

To The Boats!

To the boats!
One of our tribe has died.
Paddle hard across the treacherous waves
until the light returns.

One of our tribe has died.
Race the stormclouds!
until the light returns
and the water settles.

Paddle hard across the treacherous waves.
To the water!
To the boats!
We must move fast now.

To the boats!
Until the light returns.


-Jim DuBois
Sept 7 - 15, 2010

not trying

This is me
This is me not trying

I'm bored
    and directionless

But the rain
                    sounds pretty



-Jim
March 10, 2011

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]

The World Didn't Stop Turning

The world didn't stop turning --
    the moon rose,
        the stars shifted --

but we were safe,
    drifting through time
        on our raft
            of that long embrace,

for a while
    really living,

just being there
    at the center of things

caught up
    in the trees and water around us

caught up
    in the only moment there was.


-Jim DuBois
Sept 21, 2000

It Rained So Hard

I'm staring
at this swamp
and remembering that time
when we were young
and it rained so hard
a pond formed
next to the junkyard
and we built a raft
from old tires
and the hood of a truck
and floated around
in the rain.


-Jim DuBois
April 12, 2010

Bone Memory Poet *

Bone Memory Poet
dwelling in the
blood marrow caves
telling the ancient stories
of the genetic ancestors,
the primates of days past.

These bones,
these caves,
were grown
so long ago
no one really remembers
but everyone knows
they go further back
than some find comfortable,
to rodents and bacteria,
mud and rocks,
strands of protein
from unknown shores
off the planet.

Bone memory leads us back
to the calcification
of our own skulls,
to the womb,
to the very first vertebra,
back further
to Africa
via our individual paths,
to tiny mammals,
an ice age
and the extinction
of the dinosaurs.

Speak, bone memory,
speak, bone memory,
speak!

Remind us of our
elemental nature,
of calcium and iron,
of our siblinghood
with water
and oxygen,
of our ability
to generate
electrical pulses
and create chemicals.

You've seen
all these things
and encoded them
in mysterious genetic runes
and protein alphabets.

Bone Memory Poet,
reminding us
of our foundations,
of our inner structure,
reminding us
that below
the cleverness and cognition
we are physical entities,
forces of nature.


-Jim DuBois
Jan 6, 2010

* title line from a friend of a friend

the deepest dreams

Sometimes it only lies
in the deepest dreams,
    the creosote dollars,
        the flat sand

I don't know what it means
    but I'm saying it anyway
I don't know what it means,
    but the water is running clean,
        free from the sodium pentathol
        free at last!
            from the sodium pentathol

I don't know what it means
I never know what it means
but there's a fountain in the wilderness
and they're all coming to drink
while the stones crumble away


-Jim DuBois
1997ish

The Scent of my Childhood

Sometimes
I catch the scent
of my childhood,

in the swampy air
from the stream
down the hill,

in the rotting leaves
on the bike path
through the woods.

Sometimes
I catch the scent
of my childhood,

of the magic
that I had forgotten,

of the goodness
I used to know more about.


-Jim DuBois
Oct 22, 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

In the Winter, I saw Ducks

I hear the unceasing hum
of the traffic in the distance;

Everyone is rushing to get somewhere
and not spending much time
being anywhere.

In the winter, I saw ducks
swimming on an icy stream,
dipping their heads down into the water
to eat, like they always do.

I imagine the people turning off their cars
and placidly floating along like ducks
on the currents of life,
not controlled by those currents
and not resisting them either.


-Jim DuBois

---

This is an selection from my book of poetry philosophy, "Like the Sun". You can get a copy here

Frontiers and Membranes

The river meets the bank –
      the garbage,
      the old bricks on the beach
      the dead fish

Discarded signs of life
      washed up
      in a useless
      forgotten place

Nobody knows,
      Nobody cares,
            Nobody goes there,
                  down where the
                  bushes are scratchy,
                  down among
                  the poison ivy
                  where the aluminum can
                  and broken Styrofoam chunks
                        are resting

And what about the bugs
      we don’t even know exist?
What about the bacteria
      that live in colonies
      on our skin?
What about maggots and dung beetles?

Their whole existence is on the
      edge of another life,
      between the lines of someone else’s
            plans

The things we were done with
      the places we couldn’t use


-Jim DuBois
Oct 1, 1998

Spring

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

-Jim