Tuesday, April 21, 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

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

not unhappy

not unhappy
not unhappy
not unhappy...

what is this feeling?


-Jim DuBois
March 19, 2015

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

As I walked along the road

As I walked along the road
thinking about nature
            about vast uncivilized wilderness
            about technology destroying nature
I failed to notice the thick undergrowth by the roadside
                        the harmony of where I was
                        the perfect union of tar and tree
                                                    pavement and grass
                                                    myself and my surroundings

As I sat in my room
looking out the window
I failed to notice the glass in the panes
                        the dirt on the grass
                        my eyes


-Jim DuBois
Fall 1991



This was probably the first poem I wrote in my adult life, and it was kind of like a liberating ephipany that I could notice something, have something to say about it simply and directly, and write it down in a way that pleased me, slowed people down, and enhanced the meaning with its form.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

when you get desperate

Some people say
that you'll do something
when you get desperate,
and they kind of mean
in a good way,
but they don't know me
that well, I guess,
because when I get
desperate and use it
for motivation,
I sit around
lamenting my human mortality
and wondering
"why bother?"


-Jim DuBois
March 11, 2015

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Again

Again,
I have no answers
for the absurdity
of life


-Jim DuBois
March 11, 2015

Tuesday, March 17, 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

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

PH...

I don't have
a PHD
but I do have
a PH level
and sometimes I think
that's what really counts.


-Jim DuBois
March 23, 2000