THIS MORNING
Practicing inept
Slow to know how good I am
Jim Bodeen
18 October 2026
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ALL THE POEMS COME
Telling the return/ work revealed belonging/ Mineral rights/ Come from word// Jim Bodeen/ Bowbells, North Dakota
Mask by Jaime Gonzalez Morales
Boruca traditions, Costa Rica
Top of the Sierras
Tim Bodeen, guiding me outback, 11,053 feet elevation, at Mammoth Mountain
Pupusas Fall From the Sky
Masa de arroz/ Masa de maiz// Much of what I try to be/ is useless. // How else/ would testimony matter? Jim Bodeen
PINNED TO MIRROR WITH TOOTHPASTE
Photo by Tim Bodeen
Shield Maker Marty Lovins (+playlist)
Looking back at Earth, spinning.
Circle of Love with SOS
Courage, Discipline, Integrity, Wisdom, Compassion: Our CORE Values
Suiseki Gallery Beverly Beach
Show closes at high tide
Bonsai Over Glacier Snout
Emmons Glacier on Mt. Rainier
Robert Steven and the Englemann Spruce
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.
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?
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
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
Gateway to the Goat Rocks
Looking SouthWest From Paradise Basin
Josh Stepping Into his Bindings
High Camp Lodge, White Pass, Cascade Mountains, Washington State
Sunrise on Hogback
Practicing Soul Shine--Better than Sunshine//Soul Shine like Son Shine//God Shine Washing over us
High Mountain Invitation of Light
Self-Portrait with Elk
The child you take up the mountain is not the same child you'll bring home
Self Portrait at White Pass
Tim and Brian checking snow
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.
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
Vonnie & Craig's Esperance 1
Sky over Copper Basin
Copper Basin afternoon, Fall equinox
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
Larry Tuohy at Barataria Preserve
Jim Bodeen
- Jim Bodeen
- Yakima, Washington, United States
- 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.
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
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
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
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.
Say the names. Write them down.
Landscapes in faces
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