Slow the looking and you slow the reading, like trusting the river slows the river--some description and some big logs seeing into the beautyway while sitting on big river stones
Storypath/Cuentocamino: : EVERYTHING IS A GREAT FAMILY TOGETHER
The setting of the Ceremonial Stone corresponds to the planting of the trees. Mature trees serve as a borrowed landscape in the Stone Garden at 2010 House. The stone itself, divine gift from the divine feminine. She says, “My setter can put it down on a dime. His crane, larger than houses.” The divine may be present, but the design is a result of human meditation. Perhaps the gods will visit.
Life Partners Quilt and Cloud travel into the high Sierras in the Mothership to deliver a piece of art at Mammoth Mountain. Descending onto Highway 395, they encounter Tule Lake Segregation Camp, Manzanar, Joshua Tree, Rock Climbers, Spring Training, the Heard Museum and a lecture on early Apache migration.
Mother Quilt and Crazy Cloud in the Sierras: DRIVING OUT OF TOWN IN THE MOTHERSHIP 6 OCTOBER 2018, CRAZY CLOUD AND MOTHER QUILT ON ASSIGNMENT WITH AN ADDED TASK TO GET LOST AND G...
From wet, wrapped and wound raffia, tied, to rebar, shaping this tree from the wild.
Bob Carlson, Suiseki teacher, Spokane River
"Take off your wedding ring. // You might scratch the stone."
Suiseki Collecting White River
It's music // is the language // of the universe
ROOT OVER ROCK
Emmons Morain Trail / Rebuilt after storm / four winters past
YOU CAN WRITE A BIG POEM
Recording what's been carved/on historical markers
Potting Golden Glow Juniper
Crushed walnut in sock/polishes pot with no sheen/behind this ritual
Hands Across Generations
Karen Bodeen sewing a new outfit for Tygee while finishing Chief Joseph Vest
Chief Joseph Vest for Children
Karen Bodeen's Chief Joseph Vest for Sandy Hook Elementary School, contains the names of all the children on the inside lining. Poems of William Blake and William Butler Yeats have been made into tiny quilts inside the two pockets. A video on the meditation of violence accompanies the vest as Karen sews with a grandchild.
Uncle Tim, Caretaker
Uncle Tim brought us the skis when we were still in diapers.
Early morning notebook
Time is short.
The Presidential Interview
That place, neither pastoral or political. Even in uniform, not in uniform. I insisted on tying my own tie. The President noticed. My knot is not his knot. He noticed. He glimpsed that part I give away. That part that says, I'm from somewhere else. He saw that place for a second. He didn't know what it was, but he trusted it.
Jim Bodeen High Camp
Spring light sprung
Snow bouncing
GOD AND MAN
What are people for? the theologian asks. The child asks, Why do we have to be human?
TALKING ABOUT NUTS
Talking about nuts, Josh says, Carlos almost hit me in the nuts.
Cold Mountain
Han Shan, packed for survival, along with first aid kit, Swiss Army Knife, matches, and shovel.
Old Man's Beard
"Deezus said, "He used to be real, but now he's not."
Hogback
Grandchildren skiing the rim of Paradise Basin
Sammy & the Butterfly
PRINCIPIANTES
Quatrains explore realities. It's all true in quatrain's lines. You never know. What's happening?
What's coming next. Line's independence, that fierce. When everything's real, no need for magic. One
stays alert. No one line calls attention to itself. The nothing that sings. The beginner begins.
Jim Bodeen 2011-2013
Caminando con Eliseo Perez
Leen con nosotros, y da nos su ideas y comentario. Read with us and make your commentaries here so we can bring the world into our basement conversation. Charlas picositas en el sotano
Notebook and the Chaco Stick
Far Kiva Homecoming
Chaco Stick at rest from a high place
The Whispered Gift
Breaking silence after Lauds,
Guestmaster whispers, Your face has the look of the Eschaton. One eye catches, nods at his word.
Jim Bodeen 1 April 2008--1 April 2011
Gateway to the Goat Rocks
Looking SouthWest From Paradise Basin
Josh Stepping Into his Bindings
High Camp Lodge, White Pass, Cascade Mountains, Washington State
Snow Light Below, Sky Light Above
Skis carry the body
across the mountain
between light and light.
The backpack, always practical,
is a tool for just in case,
including the small pleasure
of chocolate. Water and meatloaf
sandwich are necessities,
as is the notebook,
The Rule of Benedict for Monks,
and Songs of Cold Mountain.
Jim Bodeen
Sunrise on Hogback
Practicing Soul Shine--Better than Sunshine//Soul Shine like Son Shine//God Shine Washing over us
High Mountain Invitation of Light
THE TEMPLE OF LIGHT AND OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL PEANUT BUTTER
All crosses here come from crossed
ski tips and will get you in trouble,
but make no mistake,
there are no mistakes in this lodge,
filling with light, practicing
to be nothing more
than the light that it is.
Jim Bodeen
24 January 2011
Self-Portrait with Elk
The child you take up the mountain is not the same child you'll bring home
Beacon, probe, shovel. Three essentials in backcountry packs
Scott Schell debriefing
Scott Schell, kneeling, one of three co-authors of the book, BackCountry Skiing, and Dave, in red gloves, discuss companion rescue exercise and what worked and what didn't work.
The Grateful Notebook
On the Poetry Pole
Lucky Snow Light
Inside the tree well
MAPPING THE SOLSTICE
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza
Solstice, equinox, solstice
Juegos en Palabras en Merida
Enough facts already. We want words made into poems.
TOCAYAS, JUANA
Juana y Juana
Juana sirviendo poesia
Juana vestida en ropas
entendido por Dios
Juana caminando en la historia
de mascaras
La cara en la moneda
La cara en la camara
In one five minute exchange
Juana recites hombres necios We make a movie
We exchange internet addresses
We talk about our lives in the poem
Both of us in uniform,
Both of us go back to work
Jim Bodeen
22 November 2010
Juana sirviendo poesia
La Catrina en yakima
Nuestra catrina, Aurora Pena-Torres
Altar por Raul Sanchez
Raul Sanchez
Dia de los muertos, Mighty Tieton
Along side, and below...
Go that way. Keep going.
Third Burroughs, Mt. Rainier
Sol y Sombra
Third Burroughs on Mt. Rainier
follows a moon walk. At Fall Equinox
it's all low angles into ice light.
A sandwich, a piece of chocolate.
Monks know how close
it is to your own house.
Third Burroughs is a bear
on the trail.
Fifteen minutes here
carries one into winter.
COPPER BASIN
A begging bowl out
of the village. A dream camp
one can drop into.
Stay is limited. In summer
you can take off your shoes.
Each breath turns into scripture.
Your own footprint confuses.
Your poems will be clean and clear.
It is not summer here.
Surprise and reversal.
Jim Bodeen
September, 2010
Vonnie & Craig's Esperance 1
Sky over Copper Basin
Copper Basin afternoon, Fall equinox
Before the Equinox
No one here has to do too much.
Bring "Too much" down to size.
This house. Esta casa where
you've been given this chance.
All one has to do here
is follow directions.
Obedecer. Good courage
holds water, weaves
itself into each room.
This house again.
The door swings both ways.
Either way, be present
Jim Bodeen
THE MOTHERSHIP
Transports us, like all good poems.
Transportation as necessity.
Nova says my hands
are exploding stars. We're
resting here--mothership
on its pad of concrete--work
of transport remains. Unless
the poem carries us, it's nova
again. No va, as Mexicans say,
No go. Daily travel, then.
Back in time, in dreams,
how we listen for the poem.
Jim Bodeen
Summer, 2010
Llama Obama--Call him up!
Call him up and tell him what you want. Barack, Mr. President. Sir, you have not done what you promised us. Sir, you have not done what you told us you were going to do. This is a very sincere request. It's not innocence. No, no. Don't misunderstand. If you pick up the phone, we'll help you.
Vigil en Yakima Contra 1070
Arbol de la esperanza para la reforma migratoria
Grand Isle, Louisiana,
BP spills oil into this beauty
Sunrise, Grand Isle, LA 7.19.10
Grand Isle State Park, LA
Karen Bodeen, marshlands
Images from Barataria Preserve by Karen Bodeen
10-Mile Falls, near Holden Village
“Jesús echó su suerte con las personas de abajo: las mujeres, los niños, las masas empleadas, subempleadas y desempleadas, la población marginada por los estigmas sociales y religiosos.” –Eliseo Pérez Álvarez
Even a charged word like Storypath/Cuentocamino, gift and invitation, bows before its ancestors, and my beginnings as a conscious being begin with Karen, whose person and story have made me, and kept me dizzy, for 54 years, 50 of those years in marriage. Karen walks with me, and helps me walk. There is some evidence that I do the same for her.
During the lifetime of the word guiding us during these years, poetry and quilts have come from the gifts of adult children, grandchildren, and an expanding experience of family. Our children live challenging, generous lives. We are grateful for them daily. My mother, with her North Dakota roots, has completed her earthly life, leaving us seminal North Dakota imagery.
Karen says, I take what the day gives me, and these words guide our family on the daily journey. Learning our steps as Grandma and Grandpa, then, inform the word, making this blog possible.
Netting covers the face
but protects no one.
Trying to enter
the world of bees,
the beekeeper
laughs out loud.
"You look like you're trying
to bag a lion."
Jim Bodeen
Beth Binch, Beekeeper
No one owns the bees. Bees are protected by law.
Dorothy Alice Everett Benson
Karen's dad in car on left, and mom in the hat at right.
Karen's Grandparents
Viola & John Everett; Louise & Eldor Benson 1947
How Karen Works
Karen looks for patterns
Bachelor Buttons at Poetry Pole
Walking into Vocation
Not dangerous work,
the Hell you say. The thing
about a parable, or a poem
or song or story, is that
the act of love
that creates it
is too much for even
the person or persons
bringing it into the world.
Come to El Salvador,
Medardo said,
and you will write the best poems
of your life. He didn't say
those poems will take you apart
piece by piece.
Jim Bodeen
La vida cotidiana
Celebrando la comida tipica
Fr. Dean Brackley, S.J.
Oscar! Oscar! Oscar!
Ask the martyrs what they need. Songs, tears, dances, prayers, for starters. We're all beginners. Todos somos principiantes. Que necesitas, Elba?
San Salvador, March 2006
We weren't lost, we were disappeared. Where will the poor sleep in the 21st Century?
Fr. Dean Brackley
Marching and Remembering Romero, March 2006
Antonio Ramirez
Writing the song of the two children in my notebook
Pastora Abelina Gomez y Don Alfonso
Comunidad Fe y Esperanza
A las tumbas con Trini
Day of the Dead, Suchitoto
Dibujo para Juan Carlos
Damnificados en Apopa
despues de las lluvias
Osmin Pacheco
Literature that means business
A broadside for your wallet
The soccer field
This was the patio of the hacienda
Trabajando para derechos humanos
Balthazar Romero, brother of Oscar Romero, greets Bishop Gomez
Medardo Gomez
Obispo de la Paz/Bishop of Peace
nombres de los rios
Obispo Gomez en Apopa
Despues de las lluvias
Mary Campbell at Poetry Pole
from Obit of Jon de Cortina
Mary at the Poetry Pole
Only a Canary
La tinta mas debil es mejor
que cualquier memoria
brillante, the man begins
The poet who is not a voice
for his people, no matter
his gifts or beautiful words,
if he doesn't speak
for his people, he will
only ever be a canary
Jim Bodeen
Meal at the Altar
Comunidad de Oscar Romero
This light, these hands
Who? Neighbor/Projimo Who is my
Kunayaya
Desolation Arch
Karen
Bright Angel Trail
Say Hello to Vishnu Schist
Tim filming in Maligne Canyon
ice mysteries
Jasper
Storypath/Cuentocamino
Storypath/Cuentocamino likes to walk out of itself into something like immersion or exhaustion. It's about listening and being called. It's in the blood beautiful in the brain. It is that much God, a necessity.
Bamboo en Tonacatepeque
Storyboard
I believe in the Parable of Gluestick, in the mixture of poetry, theology, photography, testimonio/testimony, and sometimes, placed in unexected places. Parables have nothing to do with safety for anyone. I want the poem at risk. I want the poet at risk.
The Notebooks
A series of notebooks is used in a process of during and after, and now and then. Made and remade. I consider each notebook a finished thing, complete, although it may be used again to further the work of the imagination.
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