Call And Response: #18: I Saw You

I Saw You
Originally uploaded by vajra

on the street
but you did not
see me
if you caught
me at the corner
or like a comet
flashing
you said nothing
not even the guitar
remembers
my name

Call and Response: Day 18: Sunflower Gate

I do remember

the gates whittled from
those active city streets into
crowded cafes, Owl and Monkey
sketching wide doors into journals
bringing the outdoors in, the images
of days dreamnt and classes of yearn

flowers from the tips of our pencil
poetry from our mouths
like heady sunflowers tilted
seeds between our teeth and tongues.

Call And Response: Day 17: Café Society

Do you remember
we sat in cafés
reading poems
talking about poets
writing
trying to work
together when words
and location on paper
was intensely private
cracking open our hearts
and books

Do you remember

Café Society
Originally uploaded by vajra

Call and Response: Day 17: Ash Cans

Even as Spring buds apricot and cherry
these ash cans remind us of evening fires
banks of huddle cuddle, lids on ready to run bare
back wall of Easter's replanted tulips and a new compost bin

The tomatoes and yellow bell peppers will have to wait

a little longer

Call and Response: Day 16: April Morn

April Morn
Originally uploaded by vajra

the camellias are fading
lush blooms aginst
browning against fading
against dieing

the cold that nurtured
a cool growth
beaten by frequent breaths of
heat

and sun
which pop the roses
and hydrangeas from
tightly rolled green

buds

Call and Response: Day 16: This Tree

This Tree

pre-dates the building behind it and the train tracks
beside it. I walk from office to grocery on an almost windless
day, and there is the broad ancestor before me, holding firm
to her ground. If a tree be like a woman
and a protector of mine.

Call and Response: Day 15: In Process

Revolution in Process

The sun rises again like a quiz

after all the months of snow

We think about catching a ride

to a meadow where we will point our faces

toward the heaven of springtime

plotting purple flowers along a back wall.

Call and Response: 15: Awakening

Toy Agave, New Day
Originally uploaded by vajra

after pain or sorrow
the freezing of bone
   glass
    twigs
    branches
slow sun rises
we are cautious
    uncertain
    slow
    hesitant
wondering if it's
a time for happiness

Call and Response: Day 14: Pilgrims

This weekend they walk highways to Chimayo

in remembrance of the pilgrimage of weeping

bitter persistent exertion inside of hope

with hail mary candles

and seventy mile an hour winds

Silent brothers will walk their sorrow, 10, 20 or 100 miles,

with scapular medals pressed against their hearts

beating chests of soldier relics and the passion

in the beads strung at their wrists, kind rosaries

too many to count, the colors of resurrection

hung on sacred dirt and straw walls

or wrapped around the courtyard's patient sentinel cross

Call and Response: 14th: Station

Station
Originally uploaded by vajra

April and rain
the streets rough from Winter
with no certainty we head toward
Via Dolorosa
to remember
     what

Sacrifice
and sorrow
     then
soon
the scent of new bread