The World Answers Yes!

—Poems by James Lee Jobe, Davis, CA
—Photos Courtesy of James Lee Jobe

There is no ribbon there,
But I imagine it anyway—
          Her hair hanging down
In front of her sleepy face
As she rises to greet me.

__________________


Already late spring and the windows are all open to invite the world inside, and the world answers ‘yes’ with a breeze that smells of jasmine and rosemary as my yard blooms under a perfectly blue sky.

Geese cry out from the sky,


High above my valley.


The sound; is it lonely up there?


I look up, but they’re already gone.


___________________


A flash of rabbit, a glimpse of squirrel,
          Owl-strike from above—
The wild exists even here
Among the rows of tightly-packed houses.
          Moon rise in the suburbs.

Below these streets


Are the hoofprints of horses—


Once horses ran here


Where now the oil and gasoline


Burn


Tell me again about progress, please


___________________


Really, I loved them all—at least a little,


Or for a short while. Or as best as I was able.


That love is the trail that tracks me


Between then and now, the footprints


That I left behind me in the sand.


Rainfall into Putah Creek


Water


Going round and round


And round again


_____________________


Try to hold on to your joy.
In the end it is our eyes that have dried up
And crumbled into dust.
It is our lungs that have been filled with concrete.
Try to hold on to your heart.
Our vocals once made lovely sounds, but now?
Just these sad croaks, like a very old and lonely frog,
Whose end is near.
Don't surrender.
Try to hold on to your joy.
When you no longer wish to think or feel,
You can choose to close your dry and dusty eyes,
Pull the blanket up over your head,
And let out a croak.
But you don't have to.
Take a breath, then another.
Live one more day.
Be patient, friend, your own end is near anyway.
Such is life.
Live it while it’s here.
Try to hold on to your joy.

Night
dew and moonlight mingle
And
shine. Friends,
Don’t
you know that this world
Is
filled with blue flowers?

____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

A perfect day. Blue sky with little puffs of clouds that look like hashish smoke from Mother Nature’s hookah. Sunshine like gold.

—James Lee Jobe

____________________

Our thanks to James Lee Jobe for this morning’s fine poetry, and pix to go with it! James will be reading with Nick LeForce, plus open mic, at Sac. Poetry Center this Monday night, 7:30pm. And tonight at Sac. Poetry Center, the Second Sat. Art Reception will honor this month’s art installation: History of Life: Art by Dawn Blanchfield, beginning at 5pm. Plus, Curator Bethanie Humphreys will offer a free workshop on ekphrastic poetry at 5:30pm, with a 6:30pm reading of the poems generated in the workshop. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about these and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.

—Medusa, celebrating poetry!

 “. . . this world is filled with blue flowers . . .”
—Anonymous Photo

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