Stay together. Learn the flowers. Go light.

1

At peace perhaps too much

a fine Spring rain

we seek news from the desert or capitol

of those who have dedicated their lives to losing their lives for us

adventurers, ancient honor, land runners

this campaign a must to advance one's career

a war president needs war

2

All you need to know is the names of things
chambers of commerce and large corporations
elements, products, decay fungi, egg masses
cultivars and their relation to wild grasses and the edge
uses of herbs, languages of mammals,
purposes of insects, placement of rocks
the names of everything by which we know our way

3

I've read about those remarkable souls who maintain self-control

among murderers and the unentertained multitude

who may have even spoken persuasively

at the right moment for speaking

and thus attracted a now unwanted immortality

there are only two ways you can tell

a bird of prey from a vision -- "humor and ritual

4

the Fedex gal

would be unlike taking off Emily Dickinson's clothes

over the counter perfume and spray paint hair

postman's shorts, black socks

a woman's legs are much like a man's

yet she too is beautiful, too beautiful, weekends

boating with her man

5

Suburbs, lawns, blankets

in a long, long nursery of babies

napping, old, blameworthy

and, I say this respectfully, blind

certain and uninterested

in motives more subtle than their immediate comfort

Who am I to complain?

6

Plants, poems: riches

our financial advisor doesn't count. Good and simple

a man as he is. Comes tousled

from early morning golf and puffy

from a late night fight or lovefest with his wife.

Inchworm

letting out its rope down an oak.

7

Late afternoon meeting

like the dry samara, achene or capsule surrounding a seed

how often have I tried to escape

my need, community, chamber of commerce

you cannot drive

the roads are theirs and the signs, perhaps

you can walk if you can name the plants and rocks and are willing to die

8

O happy family

there's some contentment in letting community and family decide

your place in it. Gatekeepers" --

unconscious god, invisible hand, natural selection" --

kind when refraining from violence

when not responding with force to the universe's effort

to extinguish us.

Author's Note

title from lines by Gary Snyder