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THAT ONE
That wooden spoon,
Robin and Sherry,
Hand-carved,
Makes music
From the carver’s box
Resting by the fire place.
Jim Bodeen
11 September 2026
LABOR DAY, 2026
LABOR DAY, 2026
For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people?
Esther, 8: 6
“All he can tell her is, ‘If you are silent now, and do not defend your people, you will have nothing to say in the world to come.”
Avivah Gottlieb Vornberg, The Murmuring Deep, p. 123
When my brother took me to see the Mariners play
on my 80th birthday, I saw those guys with signs
outside the stadium. They had bullhorns
and weren’t easy to listen to. Mordecai,
Mordecai. I have my own corner
of the street. Sack cloth and Stetson
hats become me. I dress up
my signs with colored Sharpie pens,
playing with inside and outside.
The people I stand with say,
Your writing is too small. Those cars
going by, they can’t read a word.
Turn your sign around I say
to myself as I turn and go
the other way—let them read
the other side. Keep walking.
Jim Bodeen
7 September 2026
'EACH IS THE OTHER AND BOTH ARE ONE' --San Juan de la Cruz
‘EACH IS THE OTHER AND BOTH ARE ONE’*
San Juan de la Cruz
“Deprendimiento”—Detachment for the purpose
of something greater.
The other inside
an imaginable God
calls for compassion
**
Jim Bodeen
1-3 September 2026
*from The Ascent to Joy, San Juan de la Cruz
**from The Murmuring Deep, Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
OVER HERE, AUTUMN BLAZE
OVER HERE, AUTUMN BLAZE
--for Leslie & Spencer Hatton
and for Little Giant Fire #2
on the deck, making my street
sign, Autumn Blaze, the great maple,
its canopy a shield, eats up the smoke,
leaves with their five points extended,
working non-stop, cleaning the air,
a miracle of community organizing.
Air underneath Autumn Blaze, clean.
Until I leave the yard for the street
witness for Ukraine, I don’t know
this myself. Smoke from fires,
foul, dangerous like the war—of
course—it’s part of the war,
the fires. It’s Thursday and I join
20-or-so others, witnesses. This is their fifth
year of vigil, and I joined them
last year. One can’t see the Maple’s
work, but sitting underneath it
one breathes free. I have a new sign
today. I don’t give my signs titles,
they’re working signs, matter-of-fact,
you might call this one, Chekhov
in Ukraine. I’ve taken pastoral images
from his stories and travel, details
that move my heart, like this one:
‘a tall Ukrainian, long-nosed, long-armed,
white shirt, embroidered collar, balloon trousers,’
from The Steppe. from a letter, ‘I am
completely enchanted,’ on my sign.
These street signs are shields,
after Hephaestus—his immortal work
for Achilleus—that shield, that one--
model for Ukraine, workers harvesting
grapes, disrobing young lovers--
you can hear their kisses—and music
coming out of streams of silver!
When I came back from war
60 years ago, my professor calling it
a newspaper—last image Hector’s men
would see before Achilleus’ sword
entered their bodies--domestic. My street sign come
from this vision, on cardboard,
disintegrating in weather, hauled
in and out of the car, ephemeral
in traffic,--but make no mistake,
cut from the same metal
Gods gave Hephaestus—standing
with Ukraine, standing against fires,
the one here in Yakima Valley, Union Gap--
the one where you live—that one,
too. And that war. The war in Ukraine,
the same war, same conflagration
as the one where you live--
devastation reaching from ocean
to ocean, blue-band of water encircling
Achilleus’ shield, magnificent
part for the whole, leaping all boundaries.
Jim Bodeen
27 July—29 August 2026
POST TO MY NEIGHBOR REGARDING THE TI LEAF LEI
POST TO MY NEIGHBOR REGARDING THE TI LEAF LEI
--for Nicole
--I thought everybody had read
The Breakdown of the Bicameral Brain
Nicole Papagiorgio
After refrigerating the leis, taking notes
on your visit, I wrapped them around
the Iwakura Stone in the garden, called
my brother, the coach, who has Polynesian
instincts, and gave him one. Research
turned into prayer: survival food in canoes.
Merton spoke to me calling trees
the perfect image of God. There’s Mark.
I wrote the story of the Ti Leaf
on the inside panel of a street sign asking
that it protect witnesses from harm.
I wrapped the lei around the 4-panel sign.
I photographed the lei, carrying it back
to the Iwakura stone and wrapped it
around this Suiseki Stone I discovered
in the Spokane River. Stay with me,
Nicole. Today I sliced off the lei
end beginning a palimpsest
on the street sign. This lei
does honest work. On this post card
as well, thinking of other deep listeners
like you, wishing you well.
Jim
16 August 2026
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