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Life Arts    H4'ed 8/8/20

Eleven Commandments

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(Image by Kelly Colgan Azar at flickr.com/people/16473336@N06/)   Details   DMCA

I am walking back across a field of white clover
And alfalfa

Honey bees are working the field
Behind me is a hemlock forest
And a path that follows a ravine
Up to where I left my friend
Sitting by a waterfall
(He is a little older than me
But we are both old men now
His hair is white
My hair is gone)

The day before yesterday
The port of Beirut exploded

75 years ago Hiroshima was bombed

First Commandment : Let the bees work the field

I'm going to be honest
I passed so many things I don't like
To get here
The list was endless
It would give anyone a headache
It's my list
And this is Vermont
I love this state
And yet I find so many things not to like

Second Commandment : Love what you like

Third commandment: Cherish what you love

I like those hills those flowers
I like that porch that locust tree
So I love those hills
Those flowers
I love that locust tree
I cherish them

Now there is a fly on my screen
Proof-reading my sentences
Stopping to rub its little hands together

When I was crossing the field
Were the clouds saying
There is a man crossing the field
He is noticing the bees working the field?

Fourth Commandment: Let the clouds have thoughts

I try to identify the plants
Growing behind the guard rail
As I walk back to my car
Burdock, poison parsnip, goldenrod
Chicory, mullein, but what's that one
With the vertical rows
Of bell-shaped yellow flowers?

Fifth Commandment : Not everything has a name
Some things don't need a name
Un-name some things

I un-named the poison parsnip
But its name came back again

As I crossed the bridge I looked into the stream
It looked just like I thought it would look
Clear and shallow
Running over a slab of rough concrete
Before it passed beneath the street

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Gary Lindorff is a poet, writer, blogger and author of several nonfiction books, a collection of poetry, "Children to the Mountain" and a memoir, "Finding Myself in Time: Facing the Music" Over the last few years he has begun calling (more...)
 

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