FRESH WATER WELL-WITCHED

THERE’S MORE: THE SON

STILL REVEALING OURSELVES TO HIM,
AND MORE AGAIN,
OURSELVES TO EACH OTHER

 

Grief cascading belief

each breath a miracle

disbelieving its own fact,
impossibility of arrival

Great gulps of grieving
waterfall, plummeting

Did all this happen that fast

Can the best of a family story
be told in one week
I think it can

Jim Bodeen
February 27-4 March 2013

GIVEN

Not something known
Not manufactured
Here, not here

Jim Bodeen
March 1-3, 2013


ON TYLER’S TIME

For whenever the hero stormed through the stations of love,
Each heartbeat intended for him lifted him up, beyond it; and,
turning away, stood there, at the end of all smiles, transfigured.
           Rainer Maria Rilke, The Sixth Elegy

 For Tyler Johnson 7-26-1981 / 2-19-2009

 

He spends New Year’s with his brother,
already called to language and the sea.
He dreams the world inside Maple Valley forest.
He dreams Madrid, becoming Madrileño
waiting for the train at Atocha Station.
He dreams Colombia, carrying his books,
waiting for Kelli. They sail the wild
North Coast of Honduras. They take
their parents to their wedding in Las Vegas—
one family celebrating young love in guayaberas.

He rises in the dark with Kelli
on Thursday and takes his wife
to the hospital to begin the work
of bringing their daughter into the world.
He leaves her to further his mission.

We have come to witness and to validate.

In another hospital, he enters the tunnel
of the MRI. The tumor inside his head
has been crowding his ideas,
interfering with his vision. He emerges
and sits before another physician
who fits him with a face mask to protect him
from the radiation that is coming.
His oncologist will talk with him now.
But he has bigger work to do,
And time. He returns to Kelli
in the other hospital and washes up.
He puts on the blue clothes of creation.
He brings his daughter, Evelyn, into the world.
He cuts the umbilical cord.
His work still isn’t done.
He will hold and feed her.
He will bring his wife and daughter home.

They need to find her middle name.
Is it chance or fate that lands on Lucilia?

Evelyn Lucilia, both names meaning light—

Light squared. Light doubled.
This week they will greet friends,
Take pictures, make movies, tell stories.

They will get it all done in a week.

Seven days is all they need.
A life time’s work in seven days.

Blessings on this life.
Blessings from Tyler.

Jim Bodeen
24 February 2009


FRESH WATER WELL-WITCHED

 

  —for my sister Vonnie

The monk builds purity

into the word

building on hopelessness

What keeps coming up
for me in dreams
is what he did, that young man

that last week
he was with us—
the reality of wonder
 
What the monk says

is this

When all hope is gone
 
left with hopelessness
what remains
is purist hope 

No bucket holds
What water
bubbles in the well

Jim Bodeen
26 February 2013