Planting a Sequoia
by Dana Gioia
All afternoon my brothers and I have worked in the orchard,
Digging this hole, laying you into it, carefully packing the soil.
Rain blackened the horizon, but cold winds kept it over the Pacific,
And the sky above us stayed the dull gray
Of an old year coming to an end.
In Sicily a father plants a tree to celebrate his first son's birth—
An olive or a fig tree-a sign that the earth has one more life to bear.
I would have done the same, proudly laying new stock into my father's
orchard,
A green sapling rising among the twisted apple boughs,
A promise of new fruit in other autumns.
But today we kneel in the cold planting you, our native giant,
Defying the practical custom of our fathers,
Wrapping in your roots a lock of hair, a piece of an infant's birth cord,
All that remains above earth of a first-born son,
A few stray atoms brought back to the elements.
We will give you what we can — our labor and our soil,
Water drawn from the earth when the skies fail,
Nights scented with the ocean fog, days softened by the circuit of
bees.
We plant you in the corner of the grove, bathed in western light,
A slender shoot against the sunset.
And when our family is no more, all of his unborn brothers dead,
Every niece and nephew scattered, the house torn down,
His mother's beauty ashes in the air,
I want you to stand among strangers, all young and ephemeral to you,
Silently keeping the secret of your birth.
i've been waiting right there as i always do
waiting for the dream that will never come true
passing the hours...passing the days
waiting for the moment for which i wait
i'm waiting at the door by a pit of fire
if anyone should ask...i really don't know why
the weather so hot...makes me wanna yell
i'm looking for you while i'm waiting in hell
My Bar
My bar is a place I can go to think,
To sit alone and eat and drink,
And drink, and drink, until dawn
If I please; Or at least until I vomit
On my shoes and knees and counter-top,
And they kick me out, and on all fours,
I crawl to the alley, and sleep under
The filth of transients and whores,
Until I awaken with the city’s early sounds;
Cars honking and people bustling,
And the sun rising over what these eyes deem,
As hands down the greatest sight;
My Bar, in the early morning light.
—Dan Philo
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
At sundown when a day's words
have gathered at the feet of the trees
lining up in silence
to enter the long corridors
of the roots into which they
pass one by one thinking
that they remember the place
as they feel themselves climbing
away from their only sound
while they are being forgotten
by their bright circumstances
they rise through all of the rings
listening again
afterward as they
listened once and they come
to where the leaves used to live
during their lives but have gone now
and they too take the next step
beyond the reach of meaning
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
if i could i would take a rocket ship and fly
to mars or some other destination in the sky
i just know that i'm meant to go
though it seems sometimes i've been before
but my mind is foggy about those days
when i was a child and could dream in space
mom and dad don't seem to remember at all
about the trip i took when i was small
i want to get back and see again
the sights i must have seen back then
in whispered tones the men in suits did say
you can never reveal that he's been in space
so no one knows except for me
about the rocket ship with the silver seats
and the lady who told me not to cry
we're just going on a rocket ride
though i am older no longer a child
yesterdays history still has to hide
but inside my heart will always stay
the dream of once again flying away
with the time that has come and gone
the eyes of arrogance have faded
the sad eyes that remain
bleed bitter tears
in memory of the ones who sent me
the ones who left me
and i wonder
what of those i am yet to know?
how will they see this child of the stars?
is it beyond them to know
what has been there all along?
is it beyond them to hear?
the words that will set them free
and if indeed all these words are to fall upon deaf ears
then what is the meaning of this silence?
what worth is there in it?
the chances have been many
but will there be another?
again and again
it's the same dream
and morning comes
i awake to the strangeness of reality
and i wonder more of this dream world
than i do of the waking one.
it's no longer a mystery...i found out today
i'm less than nothing...and that's how it will stay
look up and look over me...while i look down
you wear a smile...but i see a frown
and if there were to be a king
of this realm i know...if i know a thing
i should be the one at the the top
the top of the bottom is where the buck stops
and i'll be the king of nothing
so put on your dress clothes...and smile a fake smile
for those at the bottom...who are too tired to try
they'll never know it...you know that it's true
they don't aspire...to be someone like you
and if there were to be a king
of this realm i know...if i know a thing
i should be the one at the the top
the top of the bottom is where the buck stops
and i'll be the king of nothing
(bridge)
here with forgotten people
here with with their trampled dreams
i'll be the king of nothing
where nothing is everything
it's no longer a mystery...i found out today
i'm less than nothing...and that's how it will stay
look up and look over me...while i look down
you wear a smile...but i see a frown
and i'll be the king of nothing
i'll be the king of nothing
Planting a Sequoia by Dana
)
Planting a Sequoia
by Dana Gioia
All afternoon my brothers and I have worked in the orchard,
Digging this hole, laying you into it, carefully packing the soil.
Rain blackened the horizon, but cold winds kept it over the Pacific,
And the sky above us stayed the dull gray
Of an old year coming to an end.
In Sicily a father plants a tree to celebrate his first son's birth—
An olive or a fig tree-a sign that the earth has one more life to bear.
I would have done the same, proudly laying new stock into my father's
orchard,
A green sapling rising among the twisted apple boughs,
A promise of new fruit in other autumns.
But today we kneel in the cold planting you, our native giant,
Defying the practical custom of our fathers,
Wrapping in your roots a lock of hair, a piece of an infant's birth cord,
All that remains above earth of a first-born son,
A few stray atoms brought back to the elements.
We will give you what we can — our labor and our soil,
Water drawn from the earth when the skies fail,
Nights scented with the ocean fog, days softened by the circuit of
bees.
We plant you in the corner of the grove, bathed in western light,
A slender shoot against the sunset.
And when our family is no more, all of his unborn brothers dead,
Every niece and nephew scattered, the house torn down,
His mother's beauty ashes in the air,
I want you to stand among strangers, all young and ephemeral to you,
Silently keeping the secret of your birth.
"We must be the change we wish to see."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Waiting In Hell" i've
)
"Waiting In Hell"
i've been waiting right there as i always do
waiting for the dream that will never come true
passing the hours...passing the days
waiting for the moment for which i wait
i'm waiting at the door by a pit of fire
if anyone should ask...i really don't know why
the weather so hot...makes me wanna yell
i'm looking for you while i'm waiting in hell
(2008 db michel)
My Bar My bar is a place I
)
My Bar
My bar is a place I can go to think,
To sit alone and eat and drink,
And drink, and drink, until dawn
If I please; Or at least until I vomit
On my shoes and knees and counter-top,
And they kick me out, and on all fours,
I crawl to the alley, and sleep under
The filth of transients and whores,
Until I awaken with the city’s early sounds;
Cars honking and people bustling,
And the sun rising over what these eyes deem,
As hands down the greatest sight;
My Bar, in the early morning light.
—Dan Philo
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
To a Leaf Falling in
)
To a Leaf Falling in Winter
by W. S. Merwin
At sundown when a day's words
have gathered at the feet of the trees
lining up in silence
to enter the long corridors
of the roots into which they
pass one by one thinking
that they remember the place
as they feel themselves climbing
away from their only sound
while they are being forgotten
by their bright circumstances
they rise through all of the rings
listening again
afterward as they
listened once and they come
to where the leaves used to live
during their lives but have gone now
and they too take the next step
beyond the reach of meaning
"We must be the change we wish to see."
Mahatma Gandhi
The Road Not Taken by Robert
)
The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Success is counted
)
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of Victory
As he defeated — dying —
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!
Emily Dickinson ~
Is this appropriate on election day in the States?
"We must be the change we wish to see."
Mahatma Gandhi
Rocket Ride if i could i
)
Rocket Ride
if i could i would take a rocket ship and fly
to mars or some other destination in the sky
i just know that i'm meant to go
though it seems sometimes i've been before
but my mind is foggy about those days
when i was a child and could dream in space
mom and dad don't seem to remember at all
about the trip i took when i was small
i want to get back and see again
the sights i must have seen back then
in whispered tones the men in suits did say
you can never reveal that he's been in space
so no one knows except for me
about the rocket ship with the silver seats
and the lady who told me not to cry
we're just going on a rocket ride
though i am older no longer a child
yesterdays history still has to hide
but inside my heart will always stay
the dream of once again flying away
(db michel)
RE: Success is counted
)
I think so Michael, what an historic day..
"Dream World and the Waking
)
"Dream World and the Waking One"
with the time that has come and gone
the eyes of arrogance have faded
the sad eyes that remain
bleed bitter tears
in memory of the ones who sent me
the ones who left me
and i wonder
what of those i am yet to know?
how will they see this child of the stars?
is it beyond them to know
what has been there all along?
is it beyond them to hear?
the words that will set them free
and if indeed all these words are to fall upon deaf ears
then what is the meaning of this silence?
what worth is there in it?
the chances have been many
but will there be another?
again and again
it's the same dream
and morning comes
i awake to the strangeness of reality
and i wonder more of this dream world
than i do of the waking one.
(db michel)
"The King of Nothing" it's no
)
"The King of Nothing"
it's no longer a mystery...i found out today
i'm less than nothing...and that's how it will stay
look up and look over me...while i look down
you wear a smile...but i see a frown
and if there were to be a king
of this realm i know...if i know a thing
i should be the one at the the top
the top of the bottom is where the buck stops
and i'll be the king of nothing
so put on your dress clothes...and smile a fake smile
for those at the bottom...who are too tired to try
they'll never know it...you know that it's true
they don't aspire...to be someone like you
and if there were to be a king
of this realm i know...if i know a thing
i should be the one at the the top
the top of the bottom is where the buck stops
and i'll be the king of nothing
(bridge)
here with forgotten people
here with with their trampled dreams
i'll be the king of nothing
where nothing is everything
it's no longer a mystery...i found out today
i'm less than nothing...and that's how it will stay
look up and look over me...while i look down
you wear a smile...but i see a frown
and i'll be the king of nothing
i'll be the king of nothing
(2008 db michel)