Vox Populi
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Robert Okaji: The Continuing
So much growth while withering.
The body attacks itself, realizes the futility
in compensation, as the spirit expands
over the horizon. I am old, and yet…
Pinecones linger. The neighbor’s dog
pees on our shared fence. Yesterday’s
loss fades in the promise of another dawn,
sacraments in birdsong, in car exhaust
and friendly chatter. There is joy to find,
to break into shareable pieces, and scatter
everywhere. What astounds is the continuing.
That pulses resound, even during this slow
crumbling, this erosion of flesh. I once
walked through a wildflower meadow among
thousands of bees burdened under the weight
of pollen. Peaceful, content to gather
and disseminate, they accepted my ungainly
presence in that sundrenched field.
I remember thinking if I died there, I’d
gladly merge with the rocky soil, if only
to return one day as a pollen grain trapped
on a hind leg, to be subsumed, again, in certainty,
sustained with—and of—the glory.
~~~~~
Robert Okaji’s first full-length collection, Our Loveliest Bruises, will be published by 3: A Taos Press in the fall of 2024 (not posthumously, he hopes).
Copyright 2024 Robert Okaji
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“There is joy to find,
to break into shareable pieces, and scatter
everywhere.” Beautiful poem.
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Brilliant poem.
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How rare it is in today’s hyper-cynical literary world to come on a poem that is not only splendid in and of itself but also uplifting, life-affirming and –while it contains not a trace of self-congratulation– wise beyond calculation. How brave and generous a soul. Thank you, Mike and Robert! Thank you thank you thank you!
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Thanks, Syd. I love this poem as well.
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Ditto!
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Courage surrounded by the objects and sensorium that encompass Robert’s circumstances. Gathering acceptance one breath at a time, or in each pollen grain that touches him. Sharing difficult beauty. Peace to all who read his “generous” poetry.
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This poem lifted my spirits, and I am still following the bees heavy with pollen. What a beautiful poem. And the most important message: “What astounds is the continuing.”
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Did I find Robert through Vox Populi or some other fateful coming together? However it happened, his words have brought hope and their strength have supported me. Thank you Micael,as so often, for the poem I needed today.
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Today is National Cancer Day, a time of commemoration and gratitude for the love and beauty in our lives. Robert, you may know, has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
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Has
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So much more hopefulness to this poem than Dylan Thomas’s advice to rage at the dying of our light. Okaji is a brave soul for the beauty he finds and reveals: the shining of a life-force through dire situations. I would like my closing chapters to follow a path of such attentive wisdom.
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Yes! And I won the proverbial lottery of good fortune to have the honor and privilege of a million lifetimes to be this “shining life-force’s” beneficiary? His gloriously loving soul sustains me beyond measure.
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Thanks, Stephanie. The two of you have gone through a great deal and seem, at least to me, to have arrived at love and acceptance.
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Oh God!
I’ve become a disciple of this poet and his unyielding devotion to our mortal circumstances. We are all disappearing as this poetry grows vivid and bright—rises and illumines our thoughts like the morning orb. May that book get made and Robert shine forever!
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