Poet David Budbill Blows a Few Notes for Peace

Poet David Budbill plays his shakuhachi before reciting a poem at an anti-war rally at the State house in Montpelier, Vermont, October 25, 2003.

YANG WAN-LI SAYS

What a laugh!
All my theories are wrong!
I throw the book down
beside my pillow.

Oh, Brother!
ain't it the truth.
What's enlightenment
got to do with mind?

I pick up my flute,
blow a few notes
and stare
out the window.

David Budbill
© 2003

Woodsmoke

I spend half my life out in the woods, felling trees, cutting their trunks
and branches into blocks, splitting and stacking the blocks in neat rows.
I cover the wood with old metal roofing and let it sit for a year or so. Then
back to the woods with a tractor and wagon. Load the wood into the wagon,
haul it back to the woodshed, toss it in and stack it again.

All through the fall, winter and spring I carry the wood by the armload
into the house, and stack it again in the woodbox next to the big, old
Round Oak stove. In it goes, fire after fire, day after day, month after month.
All the while I shovel the ashes into a galvanized bucket,
haul them out to the garden and scatter them over the snow.

I love this process. Year after year, this allegory, this metaphor,
for me and for my poems.
After all that work!
A bucket of ash
and woodsmoke
gone
into the air.

David Budbill (electronic mail, November 17, 2003)

Note: Taking care of our flag is like taking care of our country. What is important to you? Is there a statement you would like to make? A cause you would like to advocate for?

If you would like to be immortalized on my website showing your colors, contact me at george@loper.org