Field
Field
Beyond the trees
That lace my window
There is the field
That young I woke to.
But out the door
Past those trees
No such place.
Without moving
I have gone
Ten thousand miles
To here and nowhere.
©
Bob Schwartz
Tag: poetry
April 4, 2018
March 23, 2018
Perpetual Adoration
Perpetual Adoration
“It is with great sadness we had to make the decision to close our beautiful monastery in Tucson, Arizona as of February 26, 2018. Our sisters have relocated to the motherhouse in Clyde, Missouri.”
In hoc signo:
No Trespassing.
Benedictine Monastery of the
Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
The sisters have left the building
St. Benedict Jesus God too.
The sisters to Missouri
The rest homeless for now.
Carved wooden doors locked
Bushes for the butterflies
Cut back and soon gone.
Who by fire
Who by water
Who by sledgehammer
Wrecking ball dynamite.
After the noisy dusty struggle
Mountains abide.
©
Note: For an earlier post about this building, sold to be replaced by something residential or commercial, see Houses of Worship As Reminders on the Street.
March 23, 2018
Dish of Dice
Dish of Dice
“I am going to build a church someday. It will have a holy of holies and a holy of holy of holies, and in that ultimate box will be a random number table.”
Gregory Bateson
Different dice
On the altar
Four six eight sides
Ten and twenty
Sleeping in the dish
Awake and rolling
Prophets with a message
Plan and prepare
To laugh cry and play
The numbers rise up
See their beauty and wisdom
Listen to
The last lesson you need
©
March 12, 2018
Bird Talk
Bird Talk
In China
Chinese food is just food
In the yard
Bird song is just
Morning chatter
©
March 11, 2018
Yesh Me’ayin (Creatio Ex Nihilo)
Ayin
Yesh Me’ayin (Creatio Ex Nihilo)
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Nothing.
©
February 28, 2018
Explorers and Wanderers
Explorers and Wanderers
Honor the explorers
(whole continents by name)
Disdain the wanderers
Destination nowhere
Leaving nothing
©
February 26, 2018
The Wandering
The Wandering
Close your eyes
Through the forest
Wade the river
To the canyon’s edge
Open
Fly or fall?
©
February 18, 2018
Is Peace Enough?
Is Peace Enough?
The birds are busy
Round the yard
I listen lulled
Sorting strands of song
The birds don’t think
They are peaceful
They are just busy
Being birds
©
February 14, 2018
St. Rafqa’s Knit Haiku
For my beautiful and beloved knitter
St. Rafqa’s Knit Haiku
Who needs the arrows
of Valentine when we knit
with Rafqa’s needles
Note: I went looking for the Catholic patron saint of knitters—there’s usually an official or unofficial saint for everything—only to discover that there is no consensus about knitting. Suggestions include Saints Fiachra/Fiacre, Rafqa/Rebecca, Dymphna, Lucy, Ursula, Sebastian or Blaise. The idea was to connect the arrows of St. Valentine to the needles of St. Whoever. The haiku idea comes from having found the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible as a gift for a knitter. All in all, a pretty long explanation for a pretty obscure poem. Happy Valentine’s Day.
February 13, 2018
Year Time (Yahrzeit)
Kaddish After Finishing a Tranctate of Talmud – David Wolk
Year Time (Yahrzeit)
The folder tabbed Dad
Reduces that day
That week
Those years
To an inventory of moments.
A poem for the dying
“It is never too late,
And it is always.”
An obituary draft
“He was a great man
Who showed us how to be great people.”
A speech
“His heart never failed anyone.”
I light a candle today
That I’ve missed before
I recite Kaddish
That I’ve chanted a thousand times
As reader and sometimes mourner.
The yahrzeit calculator
Tells me the Hebrew date
For year times to come
A list to 2038.
I wonder which of them
I will have to miss
If there is a folder
A poem a speech
For me.
©
Bob Schwartz 