COUNTING DOWN DARKNESS

WORD FROM SILENCE, WORD FROM NOISE

Blood beautiful pumping in the brain
First minutes after swimming

By my breathing, I know I'm here

Words looking into language
Each word calling for its own silence

Without silence, only noise

Coming from times out of silence,
we know enough of words to want
what couldn't before be said

It takes one's breath away to hear this call,
each silence, each sound, now a possibility reaching

Fostering spiritspace inside silence making the word
Silence a seed choice choosing while casting the guess

And the long wait for right conditions

"He put the word in the title and couldn't do a wrong thing
from there on out"

"We didn't know if she'd ever say it"

The walk down the stairs into the locker room, the dangerous descent

What about the walk back up

Breaking and making silence

Word from noise, word from silence

Entering water, body swimming in and out of word,
in and out of silence, what part invitation, what part inheritance?
The yes and no inside each word
The yes and no inside each silence

Yes and No in All

Severe beauty in northern plains winter landscape birthing ground

Varied spaces between two--sacred tension holding

Jim Bodeen
26 November--7 December 2010



THE GRATEFUL NOTEBOOK

Practices what I can only dream about
Liminal man, limited
Disappointing the invitation even in his vision
Grateful even for scraps

Who is not afraid to put down the seen and the heard

I thought you were my eyes and ears

Jim Bodeen
7 December 2010


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Come on, we'll talk story.
Writing backwards to find out what happens first.
When my friend died he was no longer blind.

Jim Bodeen
7 December 2010