AND SHE WILL TAKE NOTE
Carta contigo
Caballero Andante
Triste Figura
Ojos lanternas
Vows resolute, capacious
October May Day
Jim Bodeen
28 October 2020
EL CABALLERO ANDANTE AND THE UNFOLDING PAGE
EL CABALLERO ANDANTE AND THE UNFOLDING PAGE
for Karen
Stay in bed with Karen
receiving her kisses
reading emails
Reading the paper
while morning light
comes from window
The sadnesses of parenting accompany the joy
*
Our exhausted planet
Our multiple contagions
I read carefully for preparing
short ribs in the Dutch Oven
bitter chocolate, espresso, chipotle
*
Things to do this morning
Mulch and spread top soil
Get a key made
Withdraw money from savings
*
Tu Fu, Sancho, La Triste Figura
*
Wake and wonder how
it all happened to the children
and the country at once
We knew something
was in the air, but
didn't know it from a short cut
2 am amid a choice of books
TuFu within an arm's length
walking the banks
of the Yangtze River
That small boat
Refugees in a jet plane
I put my arm out
my quilted blanket
reaching for water
*
In Chapter XIX of Quixote
the chapter where our Cabellero Andante
is excommunicated, Sancho
gives his amo a new name
Don Quixote de la triste figura
Our Cabellero smiles and nods
John Rutherford translates this image
Quixote of the sorry face.
Edith Grossman translates the sorrowful face
Cervantes' Quixote de la triste figura
remains monumental, a foundation
for all that sorrows, the sorrowful face
accepted and affirmed by don Quixote
as he follows Sancho and his donkey
on Rocinante, looking for a place
they can dismount, hungry and thirsty
as they are, before resting among the grasses.
Jim Bodeen
13-15 October 2020
TUESDAY STOPS
TUESDAY STOPS
"All the noise was disturbing
and I couldn't find Irving."
Tom Waits
Pick up 20 pounds of pears
from bargain bin at the orchard
for drying, and computer from shop
before returning to the house
for rain hat. People are getting off.
God's humility wrapped in plastic.
Magazines for friend. She's here.
Note to J. and an invitation to read
poems from the island.
These guys in yellow vests
take up some seats on this plane.
Vest-dressed, almost a uniform.
Look at 'em waiving contracts,
Asylum seekers deported each Tuesday.
arms wrapped around hello and goodbye
ready for something like return.
White pickup with a staircase.
Steps loaded over the cab
for getting on and off the plane.
Wight-of-way nursery rhymes.
Take a few pictures with the phone.
Vests, vested, vestments.
Tom Waits sings in the new year.
How many years has it been?
Recognition of names by friend's
breath-fresh grace. Home
by early afternoon, slicing pears
for drying with knife so sharp
seeds slice, remain in place.
Jim Bodeen
13 October 2020
13 October 2020
13 OCTOBER 2020
Lock and Key
Tuesday
ICE Flight
Bright moon, white clouds
This Life
Li Po, Tu Fu
Bob Dylan
Parker Pen
Tacoma Buses
Red Notebook
Mike & tripod
Lime green vests
Tucked behind bldg.
Swift Air
Yellow & blue tail feathers
Rain on tarmac
I see you
Sun-dried asphalt
October sky
Covid-masked
Chinese writing
Mouth with appetite
Plastic bag
All my belongings
The burgeoning.
Jim Bodeen
13 October 2020
12 October 2020
12 October 2020
As Karen reads me the comics
I look up from my IPhone
Where I’m reading Tu Fu’s
Spring Landscape. The year is 755.
Arlo’s talking to the computer lady.
She can’t find what he wants.
She’s not real. That’s the joke.
A mere letter’s
Worth ten thousand in gold.
Jim Bodeen
12 October 2020
On Receiving A Book of Poems in the Mail
ON RECEIVING JOAN FISET'S
HOW IT LOOKS AWAY FROM
HERE
WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY SABRINA ROBERTS
Ephemeral or maybe evanescent
talking about tree limbs
there were blossoms
and the Hebrew Bible
open to something she
had discussed with the rabbi
back when freedom riders
others too
something looking away
but it was there
and real like a word
qualifying her for
looking in cupboards
speaking of God
Jim
26 September 2020
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