a year or so since last posting, alas

Dear World:

I've been down with exhaustion for quite a time this
past year -- heart trouble -- and have only recently
broken through and been resurrected thanks to a
Pace Maker my wife's named "Thumper."

Here's an old poem of mine that seems a
reasonable candidate for marking the occasion of a
return to the Blog.

all good things,

B

*********


BLACK STAR YEARNING

Black-star yearning, old heart grinder,
nothing to do but to sweat you out,
tear up the list of urgencies,
fold the long legs of the day.

Evening again. A school of starlings
swirls the sky like a dreamed explosion
and wildflowers flare my speeding windshield
briefly, yes, but unspeakably blue.

O, star-meat! O, incarnate source,
shatter my iron parentheses!
Though often I stall, like the undropped shoe
I'm still held in my own friendly hands.

Blessed are those whose work is presence:
dogs by the sea so joyful they're teachers…
donkeys who move like little mothers…
people so strong they risk being kind.

The air provides: it feeds the breath.
There is no sun that lacks for light.
Blind blossoms can't see their colors glow.
In unwillable ways we are beautiful.