1130 Miles: Christ Mass: Crying All Day

Crying All Day

for the missing ones

the hungry ones

women sleeping under trees

out of doors with no gifts 

but the temporary dry

bordering on warmth

1130 Miles: Christmas Day: Teardrop

Teardrop
Originally uploaded by vajra

day is finished or nearly so
after two days of cooking
shopping chopping eating
nothing to do
after cleaning
rinsing drying shelving
except
start
again

1130 Miles: 36

And on this winter's longest night 

I owe you a poem, a photograph -

loping river gift of light 

miles evaporate between us

1130 Miles: Another Day: Solstice

Solstice
Originally uploaded by vajra

three days until Solstice
I am still talking about weather
outdoors where sun
and these leaves shine
it's Spring everwhere
except the calendar

warm with chance of
Christmas

1130 Miles: Day 35: Lonely Angels

Lonely Angels

these river trees between fall and
winter call for hawk or
a painter with thin feathery brush

to coax the gradients of blue above
into an evening brew to hold escaping
warmth in cupped hands, branches of my body

1130 MIles: Day 35: Welcome

Welcome
Originally uploaded by vajra

the grateful rose
drenched from last night's rain
unwinds her slow beauty
thirst quenched
petals washed
a subtle fragrance

yet I walk on

1130 Miles:Day 34: Snow Day

Snow Day

and indoors we stir chocolate and pecans

into an egg and sugar batter to make post Thanksgiving pie

the oldest in fashion, this midday mixer 

no television, no sounds outside; nothing but two pairs of hips

side by side in the little kitchen, shifting

1130 Miles: 34th Day: Parched

Parched
Originally uploaded by vajra

last month promised
a wet winter
meteorologist speak endlessly
of the storm
approaching
tomorrow
this weekend
next week

while every morning
sun shines
birds sing
I walk to Rooz
hat on head
no jacket
camera ready
for the sight of rain

1130 Miles: Day 33: Direction

Direction

No new snow showing

I begin to cut back

recall the year's profusion

yellow flowers across the walk 

1130 Miles: Day 33: Gold In White

Mist forming
Winter coming
Flower blooming

Glorious confusion

Gold In White
Originally uploaded by vajra

1130 Miles: Today

A readied man ascends
heart in the sky, holy fire

to ghost walk
bird in the tree

behind me
memory

1130 Miles: 32 Days: Preparation

California Buckeye
Originally uploaded by vajra

rain today
pouring the brown leaves
down to the sidewalk
while golden maple leaves remain against
a gray sky
the buckeye tree bare for many weeks
shows tough purses leather
filled with seeds
ready to drop
to the soggy grass
with curling root
ready for its
journey

1130 Miles: 31 Days: Vision

Agave In Silver
Originally uploaded by vajra

VISION

we you and I
we write as we speak
or try to
by slow attention
capture pin down
repeat
capture or pin down
the moment
past remembrance
memory
What we felt or saw
once
upon
a time

1130 Miles: Day 31: Pitchfork

Pitchfork

on a wall, the points that remain

unbroken and the ends that have splintered

words that fly like shrapnel when least

expected. the delay in communicating with you

as life rolls out large tumbleweeds, harmful rocks

under soft jostled soil. stubs that pull you 

out the door toward the dry field of wishing. 

to talk. to plow under. to reveal.

Homecoming Up Dos

What do you do with an up do?

Afterwards, do you put on pearls?

Do you sit forlorn in an open air car 

all alone on your throne driven

onto the field waving at cold constituents 

who are confused by the sweep of hair 

where before there was a free bird

their favorite girl, untanned natural, 

inviting them to shed the cost, 

all smiles undone.

1130 Miles: One Month: Misty

Misty
Originally uploaded by vajra

soft rain so small
only white petals
can gather you into
small drops

November's still warm and rain
no more than mist walking
home while
Spring calls before November

1130 Miles: 29 Days: Cement

the reasons for these
structures
bedrock
foundation
skeletal
silence or location
and their absence
sound and the absence of sound
I am talking about words
trying to model language
a stone tossed into a still pond
trying to make them solid
reliable permanent
as music is
as love is
as light is

or is not

Cement
Originally uploaded by vajra

1130 Miles: 29th Day

First Snow

Shameless how you cannot help but

smile at the cold white 

man in thin clothes at the corner who

begs for gas to get back home.

1180 Miles: #28: Fall Grass

Fall Grass
Originally uploaded by vajra

Autumn has arrived
warm and wet
lover's kiss before he says
goodbye
for the last kiss familiar urgent
insistant he remembers
you remember
those hot nights
filled with succulent promise
now come and gone
Summer's fruit eaten
what remains in glass

beside the walk
the grass bends announcing
the unknown
Spring

1130 Miles: 28th Day: Amor

Amor

May the kiss of the humming find us.

May the flame not flicker

as the night turns to winter.

Cupid or asteroid: Amor.

We'll buy piñon & stack it outside

just within reach from the double glass doors.

1130Miles: 27 Days: Jewels

Jewels
Originally uploaded by vajra

10.16.09




Silence starts to break and
open the sound of early
voices in the cafe
like the Canada geese
so loud and so early
I hope they are tourists
just passing by

1130 Miles: 27th Day: Unusual Buddha: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

From his shoulders hang pleasure alms

bleached snail shells strung

Mineral bath visitors loiter &

rest easier here for his melancholy eyes

& patient ears

1130 Miles: 26th Day: Crabapple Manna

Crabapple Manna

Step just outside

my front door for

a picnic blanket of red

the smallest apples ever

from Eden

1130 Miles: 26 Days: Stepping Through

first sight Sandia
blue as the dawning of
that first day before
they turned
and walked through the gate
leaving those roses
behind

Gateway
Originally uploaded by vajra

1130 Miles: 25th Day: Alphabet Soup

Alphabet Soup

From 'U' peers a pair of pointed ears
In 'Y' my eyes to Heaven
Oddly like falling down the rabbit hole
The shadows lend a clue
Everything we learned before
depends on the arrangement of
these letters.

1130 Miles: 25 Days: Longtime Fan

On The Grid
Originally uploaded by vajra

first set's about to begin
I'm here for the last set
John Prine
forty years of music
isn't enough

Morning Porch

Why sweep?
The ruddy leaves
will find their way back

1130 Miles: Day 24: Round the Bend

Round the Bend
Originally uploaded by vajra

I, too, read the news
I'm thinking of art
brief messages
photographs
are always
yesterday
but these words live
in
tomorrow

1130 Miles: 23d Day: Seeing

Leaping

from gravel

these migratory noses of granite

pull forward

eye catching school of sculpture

convention of carved fins

noses in the air know rain's return

want water, pull

1130 Miles: 23d Day: Seeing

ICU
Originally uploaded by vajra

looking through or at
half full or otherwise
face to face perhaps
or darkly
then roses
and harbor
light or shadows
falling
falling

fall

1130 Miles: Day 22: Mariachi Females

The music is trumpet & fingers curled

comes from the rose of the mouths of those

females hoisting the elegant torsos of

broad guitars. The strumming knows not

the gender, but does know

the shrill tongue, the sorrowful hurrah, the ecstatic horn

1130 Miles: 22d Day: The Problem Of Sunbeams

The Problem Of Sunbeams
Originally uploaded by vajra

the bright and shadow
the cat relaxing or bones
melting into warmth

1130 Miles: 21st Day

Four hundred years since

conquistadors rode into this city

Today only a hint of water runs

down acequia

All artists are called to whisper back in

the poetry of the plaza where we rest

then dance a troubadour dance

Bring back the easel and take up the ink

1130 Miles: 21 Days: Standing Still

Standing Still Series, #12
Originally uploaded by vajra

thinking about Mercury
his winged feet
his changing shape
his supple back
transform
healer to trickster
then round
again
we are unsteady
unsure
if our feet are dust
or wings
uncertain
whether the air
as we step over
the mesa's edge
will hold us

1130 Miles: Day 20

School doors stand open again

algebra instructor and language arts

meet my tentative, headstrong daughter

The sky was never quite so brave

changing clothes again, three times

blue jeans and turquoise bells

1130 Miles: 20 Miles: Aurora

Aurora
Originally uploaded by vajra

your beauty small and open
the first blush of morning
a splash of pink and fragrance
how to paint you
when words brush
aperture or memory
are never quite
enough

11130 Miles: Day 19: Old Toys: InKneeling the Icon Is Revealed

In Kneeling the Icon Is Revealed

Until I bent down at the street corner shrine

I did not know what I would find

Plaster of Paris praying hands

buried there at the center

Red silk flowers grown over, a dangerous,

missed curve.

1130 Miles: Day 18

How many blue gates in this city?

How many shades of blue?

Here a coat of arms in the grail

Green on the other side

1130 Miles: 18 Days: Approach

Approach Originally uploaded by vajra.

beginning with questions where or

the tilt of your head

maps

the implacable sun

one foot in front

the radio next door

moving closer to

you

1130 Miles: Day 17

Outside, dish licked clean
dry. Inside we line up for water,
lemonade, iced coffees,
fairy sized cups of free sips.

1130 Miles: 17 Day: Joy

Joy Originally uploaded by vajra.

where there is joy

I am

in the city of

I am

near you

I am

longing to see you

I am turning toward home

I

1130 Miles: Day 16

Amarillo

Ten Cadillacs planted
nose first in Texas dirt
Hot pink spray and
blueberry

Hubcaps become regal clown hats
Undercarriage graffiti speaks
layers and layers of first names

No rain can touch this.

1130 Miles: 16th Day: Pressing

1130 Miles: 16th Day: Pressing
Originally uploaded by vajra.

heat pressing
into
my temples
like stones pressing
each ache and knot
out of me
the pattern of
pressing

1130 Miles: Day 15: Camp Circus

A hand with a camera
reaches in to snap
this Charlie Chaplin cast
where one father, one son
look straight on;
in the background
another boy in red
scales a rope swing.

1130 Miles: 15 or so: Outside

outside
the sun shines
outside
we drink espresso
outside
we smell the roses
outside
we pet the dogs
outside
we smile at babies
outside
we hold hands
outside
we know it's summer
outside

1130 Miles:: 14th Day: And A Day Late

First man singing

about dysfunctional

mystics

or Tibet

and the downhome

backbreaking

soulwrenching

blues

And two little

girls

are

spinning

1130 Miles: 13th Day: Morning Coffee In the Afternoon

Morning Coffee In the Afternoon

Originally uploaded by vajra.

sitting in the café

new paintings on the wall

new barrista at the counter

sun shining

iced coffee deliciously melting

the tiny ice cubes

everything happy warm busy

except me

1130: 13th Day

How many hands once leveraged this door?
How many enchanted gardens or diningrooms
behind the shadow key hole winking?

No one coming or going now;
when I arrive the handle shows only rust --
her paint chipping away to show
miniature craters or generations of continental drift.

1130 Miles: Day 12 or 13

This courtyard, replanted for generations,
perhaps never saw

such evergreen window frames.

This rick rack border of rock reminds me of river.

Across the lawn the wheels of wagon-trains
retire in the shade.

1130 Miles: 12th Day: Just A Fence

Just A Fence Originally uploaded by vajra.

leaning right and left

fragile equilibrium

still holding on