MY WIFE RISING

ON THE FERRY BOAT

Versions of myself

in my brother and sister

Versions of mother

If I trusted more

my notebook I would be

much funnier guy

Jim Bodeen

19 February 2015

BELOVED UNDERFEET

Outlaw father still

Hunted exiled translator

Stumbling God-walk

Jim Bodeen

18 February 2015

WHERE NO ONE PAYS FULL PRICE

On Valentine’s Day I buy

my wife a new hat

to wear to the garden show

and then find another, more

elegant, and buy it too.

Two hats for the price of two hats.

Practicing my stealth, unmasked,

uncovered in the Empire.

Jim Bodeen

10-15 February 2015

SEASONS AND SEASONS OF VALENTINE LOVE

Walking books backwards

reading through glass

leaving everything as it is

the love we had

is the love that is.

Love-slammed 

shafts of light through darkness

come from stars.

Poets and the pressure on words
refusing to bear the weight of flesh.
Not in this condition. Uh-uh.

But words are breath and memory
sustaining love in rootedness and leaf-making,

So many beginnings.

Karen,

the two syllables and five letters of your name

sustain Courie shells from the Dead Sea.

A Viking, no more than an outing.

Home the maid went with hanging keys

and I followed her,

fates cutting the life thread.

We walk out of the house

this morning full of music

museums of quilts

threading every which way.

Jim Bodeen

7-12 February 2015

FIELD NOTES FOR A MAN AT 70

       —for Tom 

So the poet hops on one foot

putting on his shoes.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

This proves his balance?

I’ve always liked him

for his lesser gifts.

For remembering

the widow’s anger,

missing her husband’s

pee stains around the toilet.

And one book title:

Not coming to be barked at.

Admiring his friends.

Wanting his own field guide.

Once, Tom, you turned

a poem into a wheel,

one turn of which

might be a person’s life.

He sold insurance.

You taught school.

Your place might be

quite a bit like his place.

His quite similar to yours.

Gospels of love yet to write.

Jim

29 January 2015

AFTER RISING AT 9 AM

MY WIFE POURS HERSELF A CUP OF COFFEE

AND SAYS,

I woke up several times at 4 am.

Jim Bodeen

27 January 2015

LOOKING AT A CEMENT MIXER

ENTERING THE HOUSE BUILDING SITE

IN EL SALVADOR, MY FRIEND

SNAPS A PICTURE WITH HIS CAMERA

I took a picture of that

because I’ve never seen

one of those on a Habitat build.

Jim Bodeen

17 January 2015