Call and Response: Day 20: What I Learned While Waiting

Clatch, #2
Originally uploaded by vajra

what I learned while waiting
in the café is beauty
surprises
(always)
that smiles say more than
you can never
know
anything
(really)
order pattern space
control us
as in the space
between
notes
(and we, too)

Call and Response: Day 20: Stacking

Stacking

The earth is upside down today as

snow seems possible even after Spring's quick

temptation to fill plots with fresh, loose dirt,

and the tomato plants in their indoor pots wait

patiently pungent. Who stacked the days

like this? and is this signpost guiding me home?

Call and Response: Day 19: Chez Renee

Chez Renee, Santa Fe, 2010

Horsemen and demons once cruised this strip
Two drive-ins, low headlights, the height of a night out make out

Saints and sinners knew the view clear as starlight blinking
Endlessly over black light, night fields, off toward Albuquerque

But now beloved art deco neon's nothing but a rusted book
Bible of missing capital 'C' and the shadow of a lower case 'e'

Ghost of Chez Renee where the candlelight was dim and authentic
And a woman and man could be heard humming along

to any old tune.

Call and Response: #19: Waiting For the Messiah

Maygave, 1
Originally uploaded by vajra

I hear the songs
playing in my mind
Joni and John talking 'bout
Paradise
and Willie on my mind
those days so heat and fog drenched
that houses glowed like mirages
in the distance
and lights and yarn and incense
led our thoughts
on fool's or God's
errands

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