BABY JANE ~

CLARICE LISPECTOR ~

R E A D      M E

New Directions

2018

ARUNDHATI ROY ~ THE END OF IMAGINATION ~

Haymarket Books

2016

ANA GONZALEZ ~

Ana González at a protest march in Santiago, Chile, in 2002, with photographs of the four relatives who disappeared during Chile’s military dictatorship.CreditCreditSantiago Llanquin/Associated Press

R E A D     M E

HEAVEN LAKE (5) ~

The Day After The Flood

The day after the flood when

the road was out of commission

and I mean out of commission

a motorcyclist showed up in the

evening as we all stood there

looking at a chasm in the road

now we looked at the motorcyclist

and the motorcyclist looked at us

we all looked at the heap of fallen

rock and chasm into what was once

a road and the motorcyclist

looked at it as well

it wasn’t easy to turn around

and all this rock was in the

way for him heading further

until he insisted his motorcycle

up onto the rock as good as

telling us he was continuing

the people who had been there

at least half dispersed seeing this

craziness and wanting no part of it

the rest looked for a little while and

then they too were gone, this left me

with an old farm hand as we watched

the motorcyclist defy intelligence

and get himself and his bike locked

up onto the rocks and that’s

when he turned around and

looked back at us standing

there watching and that’s when

we saw the little dog peek out from

the cyclist’s leather jacket and now

the dog was looking at us too, and

then I was looking at the farm hand

and the farm hand was looking at me

and we went to help the motorcyclist

and the dog get up and over the

rubble mountain, scratching and 

denting the bike until it was over

and with little or no fanfare the

rider with the dog took off sending

back at us a little hand wave

the all mighty little hand wave

Signs

For years, even decades

the little strong box

for leaving money

or taking your change

in the red shanty

alongside the road

up from the farm

where corn is bought

never had a lock

the day it did

life as we knew it

was over

The Void

It will get as cold as it wants to

tonight, you have no choice little man

either get some shelter

or freeze to death

if you freeze to death

you’ll be invincible

as a planet seen from space

—————————

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018

Downtown Wilmington, Vermont

at the height of Hurricane Irene
28 August 2011

DESERT ~

First snow

dusts these desert

uplands, sun-



lit in galactic



night. This little

wander

of a

life



touches origins

everywhere. There's

no avoiding



it. Just walking

here in this

open grassland, I am

lit up

to the universe.



—————————

David Hinton
Desert
Shambhala, 2018

CAMUS (NOTEBOOKS 1951-1959) ~

A R C H I V E

OUR BELOVED KIN ~

L I S T E N !

Yale

2018

EQUIPMENT FOR LIVING ~

M O R E !

TEXTILE POLITICS ~

University of Chicago Press
2017

PHYLLIS WEBB ~

I N T E R V I E W

BOOK LOVE ~

Todd Bol, Creator of Little Free Library Movement, Dies at 62

Image

Todd Bol, the creator of Little Free Libraries, in 2013 with Eddye Watkins, who hosted an Amish-made box in her yard in Minneapolis. Mr. Bol considered libraries to be part of the connective tissue of communities.CreditCreditDavid Joles/Star Tribune, via Associated Press

R E A D     M E

CELINE ~

HEAVEN LAKE (4) ~

Go !

On the window —

raindrop chasing

raindrop

What The Rain Brings

The reason I mention rain

And the junkyard up river is

That many times in the past 

When the spring rain came

And the river went high

It would flow like nobody’s

Business straight through the

Old barn on the junkyard

Property and think nothing

Of picking up and sailing away

Any scrap metal part or bumper

And refrigerator door and I

Could be a mile down river

And seeing nothing much

Until I saw all this flow past

Specifics

To be specific

this is what the mother

of the young men who had the camp-

site on our land did —

she refused to assist us to move her family off our property

and back onto her own land, and she has plenty

she threw her garbage onto our land

when the law was called in to help us with the matter

she lied between her teeth

and when the law left and they set up

a no trespassing ordinance against her to

stay off our land, she went onto our land

in clear defiance and dared us to do something

about it

so we did —

we called the law back

they came

clamped her down with more headaches

what was learned?

she lies

Know What You Do

What does it all mean?

it means times have changed

and we’re supposed to change with it

take the quiet, the river, the old

road, animal lore, secret pathways

respect for stick, leaf and silence

and throw it all away

do as we please

barge where we barge

litter as we like

you don’t know what sort of 

agreement and law and universe

you are asking to destroy when

you do this

—————————

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018