of all the slippery slopes

i had to slip on yours.....

Abandon All Hope of Fruition

could it be that hope and fear are the same...

for some things

no thing will work.

the air so dry, the wind so constant,

the thin sheets of paint dry almost instantly.
veils and veils over veils.

Contraband

I am in one of the cells on the upper deck
just me and my Maglight, looking under steel bunks and thin mattresses for contraband.
Contraband is in my daily vocabulary.
Contraband could be a number of things,
cigarettes
drugs
weapons
ink pens
1 too many comic books.
There is a particular smell to detention,
institutional cleaning supplies and their failure to mask urine and all the lost things.
In this cell there is no contraband.
the Maglight shines on some dust in the corner,
what am I doing looking for contraband.
I went to art school.

I am sitting on the tiny front porch of one of the bunkhouses

end of july
kick up a little dust cloud with my boot
the wind, neverending whisks it away again.

I think I will name the mule Cassius.

I wrote a poem to my father in the summer of 1988

it was the summer that the Black Hills always seemed to be on fire, one fire so fierce, the smoke blocked out the sun. I wrote him this poem because I could not have spoken the words, my mouth could not form them. My throat tightened, and my cheek bones twinged, and the words would not come out. I would think them alone at night when I heard Claude working, sawing the cedar boards, nailing, sanding, making ready. My father had become so quiet, and I wanted him to know in words how much he was loved, how much he would be missed. There had to be some words. He would sit outside sometimes in the sun. That is where he was when I brought him my sheet of notebook paper. Maybe it was 12 lines or so. I can't even remember but a few of the words. Holes, coyotes, listen, howl. I don't even know what happened to it. There were words.

Would you like to live on less...

could you?

Hermosa song

Synergy is such a stupid word. Not all mistakes are negative and not all hand holding is miracle work. We learn by our mistakes. October. 1992. DUI. St. Croix County Slammer. Nearly lost the scholarship. Never before had I celebrated Easter break-I never really did celebrate Easter. Three years away from home, living like a vagabond, and there I was-Easter Dinner with the family in March 1993. Celebrating a new Driver's License. A new appreciation? No. My aunt pulled me
aside. "Every man needs a chain," she said as she gave me a late birthday present. Inside-a gold necklace. Men in my clan don't wear necklaces. "Every man needs a chain," she said. I didn't know what she meant until she died a few weeks later. Every man is a danger to himself. Trade in the hand cuffs and the stupidity for the respectable version. Every man does need a chain, a link back to the earth- something solid. Gold, wire, steel. It doesn't matter. The final link to earth is rotten and holds no hope.

jdw

There is no task

that is beneath me. No job I would not be willing to do. That is not the kind of pride I am cursed with. I don't concern myself with retirement. Most likely, I will die with my hammer in my hand.

Float like a butterfly...

Grimly by young eyes
on the edge of a bed in a dining room
sits a man with a beard
Bumblebee slippers hide
dying, disfigured feet
that dangle off the floor
Eyes down once and up again
the black and yellow stripes bring a smile.



Contributed by JDW

from sidearm pete's sleep

Last week
I was tearing the roof off an old building/shed
It wasn't my building or shed,
so I kept looking over my shoulder.
then
for some reason
Dad is sliding off the roof
and
I grab him by the ankle
I was able to hold him
and lift him to safety
just
like he did for me
So many times before.

Something I always appreciated and think about still

We grew up pretty poor I think. My mother was a creative and pretty awesome cook, but compared to how we live now, our meals were pretty basic. But every so often my dad would splurge on something exotic, a pineapple, a coconut... and bring it home to us. It was a big deal, we would watch him cut it open and everyone would share it. And you just knew in that moment that that was something special he wanted you to have, to experience, to remember him by.

In the beginning, it will be the summers

the summers are fantastic in Hermosa, we will go on field trips, agate hunting, fossil hunting, watercolors, swimming hole, rock climbing...there will be work too, long hard days of weeding and harvesting, making art and singing songs...and don't forget about the basketball games....

and you knew it was too early to think these thoughts

but you could not help it, the smell of earth was in the air. The snow would melt, and there was no way to keep the mud out of the house. There they were in the south window, more seedlings than you thought you could keep alive. Some of them were getting a little leggy, reaching for more light...it hurt to look at them. There would be the days when you just knew spring would come early, and it did, for a day or two.
The time would change soon, and then it would be as if this painful waiting had never happened. That extra hour, it would mean everything
Before long The Garden would be planted, another summer of long days and beet greens, and roses and basil....

can't remember the year...but it was Halloween, and i felt moved to dress up

and i created Miss Hermosa, complete with sunflower, turkey feather, and barbed wire trimmed cowboy hat.

It is basketball season here at the HIA

and a fierce rivalry has developed between the Pufferfishes and the Jackals, but everyone knows that the Lady Star Wranglers are always the team to beat.

and at what time did Hermosa begin....

and when did we not know it? when were those gardens planted, those seeds sowed. What profound love bore down on that common place, and what gave it the right to tear me up and then restore me again...it is done, but not done, imagined, felt, dreamt, seen, and finally real.

Sometimes there are people you love so much

it makes your heart want to explode, and sometimes that is exactly what your heart does.