Being

Watching (M.A. Reilly, 2009)

Being a Person - William Stafford

   

Be a person here. 
Stand by the river, invoke the owls. 
Invoke winter, then spring. 
Let any season that wants to come here make its own call. 
After that sound goes away, wait. 
A slow bubble rises through the earth 
and begins to include sky, stars, all space, 
even the outracing, expanding thought. 
Come back and hear the little sound again. 
[Come back, and hear that call.] 
Suddenly this dream you are having matches 
Everyone’s dream, and the result is the world. 
If a different call came there wouldn’t be any 
world, or you, or the river, or the owls calling. 
How you stand here is important. 
How you listen for the next things to happen. 

How you breathe.

Marked

 - Carmen Tafolla

Never write
with pencil
mi'ja
It is for those
who would erase.

Make your mark proud
and open,
Brave,
beauty folded into
its imperfection,
Like a piece of turquoise
marked.

Never write
with a pencil,
mi'ja.
Write with ink
or mud,
or berries grown in
gardens never owned,
or, sometimes,
if necessary,
blood.