Now when it rains

Now when it rains,
you can't drive me home


-Jim DuBois
April 3, 2012

I caught a firefly tonight

I caught a firefly tonight
and it reminded me of you
then it climbed out of my hands
and flew away into the darkness


-Jim DuBois
June 28 2012

two people

Sometimes it's just
two people
building a little boat of love
to stay afloat
in the chaotic universe

Sometimes it's just
two people
not lovers
not perfect friends
but close enough to matter

Sometimes it's just
two people,
even though
they wished for more,
and two will work

Sometimes it's just
two people
two ordinary people
two imperfect people
two good people.


-Jim DuBois
Jan 5, 2007

but sometimes

We can't talk
but sometimes
we can dance


-Jim DuBois
May 30, 2006

where he had buried his name

_________ returned
to the forest spot
where he had
buried his name
in anger,
before he had gone
into the mortal world
in search of battle
and redemption,
and the forest
had fallen in
upon that burial spot,
closed the paths,
made it hard
to get to,
but he pushed through
the thorn bushes,
and stepped around
the fallen logs,
and retrieved his name,
and no one
has set foot
there ever again.


-Jim DuBois
Sep 25, 2013

The days pass by

The days pass by
  like lovers
    and old friends,

Unfolding in ways you didn't expect,
  and turning into memories
    before you can grasp them


-Jim DuBois
July 20, 1998

A weird cadence

A weird cadence

An eerily fantastic flow
of sounds in language

An uncanny,
so as to inspire superstitious fear,
extravagantly fanciful
outpouring of vibrations
transmitted through the air
which stimulate
the organs of hearing
and produce
sensations interpreted as
a system of linguistic
signs or symbols.


-Jim DuBois
March 23, 2015

Objects are Relationships

Objects are relationships
of energy
Apparently stable
a rock is
ever changing

-Jim DuBois
Summer 1992

Working Class Wisdom #3

This old guy,
a building contractor,
loved to tell me
about life
and one thing he said
stuck with me:

"Pursuit is the evidence
of desire."


-Jim DuBois
March 23, 2015

Working Class Wisdom #4
Working Class Wisdom #2

Working Class Wisdom #2

At a tag sale
on the way to the Berkshires,
I hear a guy say,

"It's a good day
if you're not in a hole
with them throwing dirt
on you."


-Jim DuBois
March 23, 2015

Working Class Wisdom #3
Working Class Wisdom

Working Class Wisdom

A man walking down the street,
his daughter trailing behind,
and I overhear him say,

"Because being nice
doesn't always get things done."


-Jim DuBois
March 23, 2015

Working Class Wisdom #2

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

not unhappy

not unhappy
not unhappy
not unhappy...

what is this feeling?


-Jim DuBois
March 19, 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.

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

Again

Again,
I have no answers
for the absurdity
of life


-Jim DuBois
March 11, 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

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

Notes from 2015

1. Things take time.
2. Progress is incremental.
3. Love adds meaning to life.
4. Perseverance is important to achieving things.
5. Life ends up being what it is instead of what you wished it was; but if you accept that you can work with it and move forward.

-Jim DuBois
Inspired by the previous entry.

Notes from Years ago

1. Slow down, find Natural rhythms
2. See world in biggest picture possible.
   Expand your boundaries, increase your visions
3. See Now (present moment) as
   complex sum of all there is;
   helps you understand that
   every moment is always
   new and different
4. See your place in the universe