songs that greet sunrise
rain, twilight – Here I am – sing
what and where they are

Not how many different birds I’ve seen
but how many have seen me,
letting the event go unremarked
except for the quietest sense of malevolence,
dead quiet, then restarting their lives
after fear, not with song, which is reserved
for lovers, but the harsh and quizzical
chatter with which we all get by:
but if she or he passes by and the need
is felt we hear the music that transcends all fear,
and sometimes the simpler songs that greet sunrise,
rain or twilight. Here I am.
They sing what and where they are.

Geo-Bestiary, #34 as published in Jim Harrison: Complete Poems by Jim Harrison, Copper Canyon Press, 2021.

don’t be part of the
problem stay home and be part
of the solution

So said the Bullock County Sheriff after a day and night of rain, freezing rain, ice, snow and everything in between.

Don’t be part of the problem. Stay home and be part of the solution the Sheriff said.

My first reaction was to stay home and let the snow plows get out and take care of the mess.

Then it really hit me.

The State of South Carolina and the Country of Beaufort and the towns of Bluffton and Hilton Head don’t have any plows.

They don’t have any salt.

The might have sand and shovels but not what you think of for snow removal.

Sun is supposed to come out tomorrow, or maybe this weekend or maybe not for a while.

I will stay home.

I will be part of the solution.

Not a part of the problem.