remembering the poets

We moved by water, slowly
found our way in the dark, through the canals,
around the tight corners. We moved slowly-
circled out & in, put it together
like some kind of needlework. Some places
folks don't live their lives in a straight line.

James Koller (1936-2014)
15 Oct 87 Venezia

***

One Journey

Moths and other sacred wings
Butterflies and bees whisper
In breath of the wind
Blessed way blessing way things

Dreams are the minds streams
Thought pictures of the spirit
There are dreams of the day
There are dreams of the night

Thinking and dreaming are related
Dreams of the day we make our own
Dreams of night part eternals stone
There are dream takers
Taking from dream worlds
Taking dreams as a way of
Stealing thoughts

Turning minds inside then out
Dream slavers want to change
Our connections to ourselves
Mess with our dreams make us unsure
Unclear about right and wrong
Feed our dreams and instincts
To industrial profit machine

Difference between dream and fantasy
Reality and illusion center and no center
Dreams of the day keep our spirits alive
Our creative mind who we really are

With dreams we can create and heal
Follow our original purpose
Dreams are protection good medicine
Blessed way blessings way things

Sun and moon continue
We are all on one journey

John Trudell (1946-2015)
from Children of Earth
Childs Voice

 

For Jim

10 dicember 2014

10 Dicember 2015

dear Jim we remember you

Dianella

hello from Dianella in Italy

Ciao, with the permission of Jed Koller almost every day I put in my blog one poem of Jim  from "A river I could't find":https://poesiaprosaspontanea.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/a-river-i-couldnt-find-di-james-koller-2/

I love so much these poems of Jim and I remember him as poet and as person. In few day is the 10 dicember, as you know naturally

all the best from Dianella

A River I Couldn't Find

Bertie Koller - Searching For Blue Sky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrFn_2pPhNw

Another song for James Koller. Love, Bertie

Searching For Blue Sky
 

my father died an old

man coyote crow

face to the open

window sky road

we gathered around

the world together him

a lifetime of

children lovers friends

searching

for blue sky

oh joplin missouri

wind & clouds & rain

a poet died in your arms

but to you it's all the same

we're all just passing through

nomads drifters tramps

on our way to somewhere else

black coffee & maps

searching

for blue sky

set me loose on the

highways back-roads trails

let my heart

open love wail

for the days yet to

come be pass

from now until my

final closing last

searching

for blue sky

my father died an old

man coyote crow

face to the open

window sky road

beneath a mid-day sun

whiskey feathers bells

together we bade him

fare-thee-well

searching

for blue sky

23 Jan 15

our Love, Bob

from Ida Rose

There is a chair in my kitchen where you've always sat
I look over
and see you there
watching me.
You smile. And with your same eyes,
I smile back.

2/4/2015
(I love you, dad.)

M. Swift - For Jim, on the 49th Day

For Jim, on the 49th Day

Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world:
 a star at dawn,
 a bubble in a stream;
 a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
 a flickering lamp, 
a phantom
 and a dream.

— The Diamond Sutra

After reading " from a daughter" - Dianella

After reading " from a daughter"
 
Ci sono persone
che rimangono sempre fuori di noi
anche se le tocchiamo
ci parliamo
ci scambiamo parole
e ci auguriamo belle cose -
altre le vedi due volte
ma intensamente
altre non le hai mai viste
sono morte da anni e decenni e anche più -
eppure le senti ogni giorno dentro di te -
sono i tuoi maestri -
oppure
le hai viste quelle due volte
intensamente
e quando ti dicono è morto
senti che è venuto  a stare da te
dentro di te -
è una cosa strana ma vera
---------------------------------------
Dianella

from John Lane

Thank you for sending me this link. I was so sad to hear of Jim's passing. Please accept my sincerest condolences. Peter Garland had emailed me to let me know that Jim had passed. I wish we had been able to mount a production of The Bone Show for them, but I just couldn't get it together.

It is lovely to see all of the tributes pouring in from various poets and friends. Thank you for sending me the link.

I have a picture of Jim and Peter. Perhaps you'd like to put it up? It is from 2011. And here's a link to excerpts from The Bone Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHDNnGe5SRE

All the Best,
JL

from a daughter

Poem title: "Because I told you that you would live on through me"

When a person dies

   many say that they leave

      an emptiness

I have been looking for this emptiness

   under rocks, in the sky, in city bricks and on train tracks

      in sounds

         like the tea kettle whistle, or the winter rain hitting the window

Disconcerted

   I can't find the emptiness

I keep running into You

   here, there

       here, there

Even the prism through which I see and hear

   all of these things

      has your hand so firmly in its blueprint

So why should there be emptiness when You are everywhere

   and the world has become so full of You

that my heart intermingles its beats

   with Your own?

in this and of 2014

Dear Jim, in this and of 2014 we think to you
with love from Dianella

Jerome Rothenberg - The Sky that Harbors Heaven

The Sky that Harbors Heaven

                                 for Jim Koller, in memory                

into the

homeless state

the lines

of poets

move

not hardened yet

into belief

& other acts

of cruelty

their voices

lost to us

signal a silence

sure as death*                                   * as breath

& louder

even now

I hear

& treasure

like a cry

the greatest

cry

is silent

as the wise man

says

& turns

facing

the future

still behind him

mysteries

we love

only because

they break

the world

apart

enough to let

the faintest light

shine through

the sky

that harbors heaven

is no sky

the darker world

enfolds it

waits there

mindlessly

until it swallows

mind & body

leaving scarce

a trace

behind

once &

for all

20.xii.14