Bill Fell 11/24/20

Big-ass Chinese Pistache tree
  Aflame over rooftops
    Sunrise delight

Bill Fell 10/27/20 and 11/9,11/20

For Elizabeth, Patti and Lyle

                                     1.

Silver halos radiate from each footstep
Fade away at a stroller’s pace
Time to consider modern hominin imprints

Driftwood finds haven in a cliff face crack
A friend spots a flying alligator sculpture
Once seen, there it is, until whenever

Sand dollars, small crabs, heads or tails
All strewn along a tidal line
Far less fleeting than blankets of foam

Pelican squadron approaches from 9:00
Eyeing our camera, they line up, waving up and down
Out of sight, no fishing, they’ve somewhere else to be

A free-range black lab gallops across 
Sands, dry-warm, wet-cool, totally unscripted
Huge grins, gaiety all around
 

                                        2.


Driving through familiar landscapes, 
and ultimately to a place I’ve never been 

Seventy years on and just now getting to Bolinas
Causes and auspicious conditions line up

Tiny-town, hippie, artsy, maritime dankness
Fitting it all in to my storylines

Conga drums set up for some tunes later-on?
Perhaps.  But we’re just passing through

The one-room museum honors an elderly local bookmaker
Her old printing press, typefaces, graphics, poesy, thread  

Tide rushes out as seals head-bob in the current
When and where they’ll be next, being the question 

Pelicans roost on their for--now feeding ground
Co-existing with other species

Surfers dress up to catch a pre-dusk wave
For once this weekend, I’m not overdressed

Bill Fell 10/10/20

“To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts”

Henry David Thoreau

So, finally I break down and get a smart phone.  And I am actually carrying it with me when I remember.  So why the change of heart?  I was finally persuaded that to NOT carry a phone is not exactly in step with the bodhisattva vow given that others occasionally might count on me for help.

Where was Walt Whitman’s phone?
  What am I aspiring for?
    Why did I phonelessly hunt golf balls
      When I was needed at home?
Abandon old ways, Bill

Where’s the open-heart in that? 
  What’s the openness called for in our vows?
    Why do I resist another imagined tether
      When I have caller ID, just
Learn which buttons to push

Bill Fell 9/3, 12/20

Aileen always used to say; “Bill, you are Boogie’s human.”  I had to agree.  Boogie passed away on my 70th birthday which is interesting – a serious hit of sickness, old age and death.  We are guessing she was about 15 as we had her for a dozen years since the Vet guessed she was three.  It is helpful to have a set of poetry-inclined friends and community of like-minded, like-hearted friends so that I’m not writing these things for just myself.  

“Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life; it might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life.”  Ani Pema in Awakening Loving Kindness p. 48

Hours alone in the den sitting sphinx-like
Then, bride-assisted
Another last leap to my supine lap
You know it’s OK to walk all over me

Your faded forever pink collar, so loose
Diva | Boogie (530) 753-2846
Worn away jet-black thinning hair 
From a very visible gray skin

Another quality-time petting, 
No purr, we stare
Greenish-gold eye to my bluish-grays
A familiar evening nose-to-nose

My stroke down your bony spine
Slowly . . .  approaching your behind
You reflexively stand at attention
Before settling back down

Bless you, dear friend, for joining US
Warming US 
Sharing that silent meow look, as if
“We’re in this together . . . , right?”

Bill Fell 6/26/20 and 7/3/20

Teaching a class on Zoom is different as we eventually learn from trying things out.  For example, you can invoke a weird sense of “NOW” by trying to get everyone (unmuted) to chant in unison.  

Visiting daily a morning wall of sangha
	Boxes of images of thoughts; labels
		The occasional judgement, imputation

Subtle . . . enabling eye shifts allow for
	Honing in on me, or whomever;
		We’ve permissions to pin, or not to stare?

But then now, who’s looking at me?
	Is this, an OK-time to sneak a web search?
		Ahh yes, fresh multitasking possibilities 

Seemingly synchronous speech, volume set to “11”
Just don’t try group chanting or knee slapping
	A cacophonous stream of non-split-second now  

Dicing up the world
	In new low-energy exchanges;
		It’s all part of the program