Bluebird Diaries

"...the shadowed bronze
of the kamani and the blue day opening
as the sunlight descends through it all like the return
of a spirit touching without touch..."
         – Merwin, from "Before a Departure in Spring"









Song of the Yue Boatman


We may as well float along the path  for it is but a spit of land  ancient  of glaciation and the city across the bay only modern roots of windows and wall  we may as well float along the path  out ahead where it narrows  past the lagoon  where few people congregate  a string of firepits we imagine all ablaze under an umbrella of dark sky and starts spread down their laces onto the water seeking the sand of the crushed beaches  here we are but boatman of a kind  stand upon your canoe your flatbottom drift along this moveable sky of water what does the scene look like of water of land of sky and stars for you  soon it will be time to hide back in the city back inside the walled lives  prod your boat oar through the shallows of every step  yesterday right here is where the bluebird wept  identified by white breast  identified by how it was a dash of the golden sky and knew nothing of you boatman of the Yue  boatman of the world  and it did not say goodbye  but loved instead