BE BAMBOO

72 poems by Jeff Rockwell

Cover photo by Jampa Dorje
52 pages perfectbound
Sebastopol, 2005

1

The belly soft again,

the mind in its

place;

I remember

to remember

love

and all the spinning,

good-natured atoms

in this very body.

2

We’re all here

to create;

patience, friendships,

songs, and stories,

whatever the situation

calls for:

new hearts,

flashlights of attention.

3

Every common song

is heard walking

down Broadway

towards 105^th—

faces worn out

wrestling with thoughts,

five Puerto Rican girls singing

by intuition,

mangos and papayas

meditating in rows

at produce stands;

a Japanese man,

probably a great-grandfather

drinking green

tea in the face

of a honking bus.

4

Every pigeon in the

world has made

its home in

Manhattan, it seems,

lured by

rheumatic humans

with basic goodness

who feed them

bread

beneath slivers

of spare sky.