background image
in plain air 159
inside inside
The Japanese farmer
in Rexroth's translation
hoes weeds all day
and then hoes them again
all night in his dreams
joining a memory of hoeing all day
forty years back, and all night
dreaming of hoeing
till I was so tired in my dream
I found a pile of gunny sacks
in the noon shade of the tree
between the well pump and the garage
and sank down on them and slept,
a dreamless sleeper in a dreaming sleeper.
late song: ambush
I see my bones lie white
And shining in the Light,
I need the darkness here
Inside me to repair
Old purposes much frayed,
Or shelved, being so ill-made,
Parts of my life now broken
For clear thoughts left unspoken,
Things I uttered, too,
Made some of it run untrue,
Of all that's mine alone
Little fi t to be shown --
With more work crowding in,
A fresh page to begin,