window bird
in the morning,
bold action!
in the afternoon,
quiet contemplation
in the nighttime,
deepest sadness
a sparrow sings knowingly
outside my window
/ / /
Jason Crane
17 October 2019
State College PA
Category: Nature
I’d like to teach the world
I’m under a tree like the Buddha
but only for 45 minutes
it’s my lunch break
also unlike Siddartha I’m in uniform
corporate logo over my heart
another on my sleeve
there’s a parking lot & a playground
carved into what used to be a field
heaven forbid kids should play in a field
I’m drinking a Coke so I should probably
shut the fuck up
if I live as long as my grandpa
I’ll make it till 2069
by which time the collapse will have started
maybe I ought to spend less time writing poems
& more time learning to grow food
we should teach the world to sing, sure
but a little farming wouldn’t hurt
///
Jason Crane
Bernel Road Park
Centre County, PA
3 September 2019
the world’s breath
I’m in some
bastardized
Burmese posture
as the wind
tries its many hands
against the walls.
Are we ever so
comfortable
as when
whatever shelter
we’ve conjured
proves able
to withstand
nature’s
not-so-gentle
reminders?
///
Jason Crane
29 December 2018
Cheshire, NY
What We Recognize
There’s a red-tailed hawk on the wires above the Monro Muffler. Or maybe it’s a falcon. I don’t know for sure. I like to think I can identify more birds than I can. Like most people here in the land of asphalt and promises, I know more corporate logos than I do birds or trees. Show me the Golden Arches or the Swoosh and I’m your man. Ask me to identify the leaves that gather like asylum seekers against our door and I’ll have to admit I know as little about them as I do the people I used in this metaphor. I believe in building small communities, but I don’t even know the names of most of my neighbors. I’ve hugged the guy who brings our Chinese food but his name escapes me. Same for all those dear friends I had on Facebook. Now I see them on the street and they’re like pop songs whose lyrics I never quite understood. Hum a few bars, but quietly. The hawk is skittish.
///
Jason Crane
25 November 2018
State College PA
I’ve been very reluctant to talk about this, but I think that sometime in the past year I’ve had one or more enlightenment experiences as a result of meditation and some life shocks. I hesitate to even use that terminology because it’s so weighted.
In any case, there have been several tangible results of seeing the world more clearly this way, one of which is that I’m exploring ideas I would have rejected before, including those rooted in nature. These experiences are also the cause of my recent job decision and the attempt to redesign my life around a different set of principles.
My life has always been moving in this direction, but very slowly until this past year, when suddenly I see the universe and my relationship to it (and the reality of whether or not there’s a “me”) in a way I never imagined before. I’m still figuring all this out, and definitely not laying claim to any special knowledge or status. It’s another step on the path.
Leave a Commentnuthatch drops three seeds
finds the fourth acceptable
returns to the trees
8.25.18
State College PA
mating dragonflies
try car after car; fickle
shoppers at Target
8.12.18
State College PA
grasshopper softly
sits on the mallet waiting
for me to begin
8.5.18
O-An Zendo
///
outside the window
a leaf that looks like a face
“hi, leaf, my name is—”
8.5.18
O-An Zendo
unified field theory
to watch a hummingbird
poke its long snout
into a fake flower
in search of sugar water
is to understand the universe
///
Jason Crane
28 July 2018
Canandaigua NY
another meditation
a sateen breeze tousles the grass at the edge of the cement patio
chipping sparrows flit to the feeders, running low after our week away
one insistent crow shouts from a nearby tree; I think I see him but no,
that’s a broken branch
I don’t know whether there’s a jewel at the center of this labyrinth
but for now it’s enough to read a magazine, to feel the embrace of the wind
to wonder what the hell the crow is going on about
/ / /
Jason Crane
2 June 2018
State College PA
chipping sparrow hops
from one feeder to the next
late April rainfall
4.27.18
State College PA
invasive species
we planted it at the foot of some low hills
near a made-up border between two states
soon we moved it across that line
took it north, then west, then back east again
we tried to give it roots in new soil
but by that point, the damage was done
it hadn’t learned to reach deep into the earth
never figured out how to flourish in one place
like a Hollywood tumbleweed it rolled off-screen
passing by in the background of other people’s scenes
sometimes coming to rest, but not for long
for years we lost track of it, saw and heard nothing
until finally it came to rest in a valley
far from water, far from the home we’d tried to make
rocking back and forth in a wind only it could feel
but staying put, at least for the moment
/ / /
Jason Crane
11 April 2017
State College PA