animal spirits (partial views): OK, deer / Joseph Ceravolo: Cat of Eternity

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[Deer, near Berkeley]: photo by Rich Buchanan, 6 November 2016

[Deer, near Berkeley]: photo by Rich Buchanan, 6 November 2016

[Deer, near Berkeley]: photo by Rich Buchanan, 6 November 2016

OK, deer

Two deer on the night path ahead, a third

walks out into the street

light hooves audible from here

It's OK, deer, no worries

is what I usually say

and the deer usually stay, like these do

nibbling on the dark something or other bushes
taking their own sweet time
straying up the shadowed hillside

Slight rustling of leaves

can't see them yet know they're there

They can see

and hear

what I can't see or hear...

It's OK, deer

Deer on a foggy Berkeley morning: photo by Laura Morland, 14 November 2016

Joseph Ceravolo: Cat of Eternity

 [Untitled]: photo by Md. Enamul Kabir, 31 March 2017

 [Untitled]: photo by Md. Enamul Kabir, 31 March 2017

 [Untitled]: photo by Md. Enamul Kabir, 31 March 2017

 

Joseph Ceravolo: Cat of Eternity

                            February 25, 1987

About 2 feet from the curb, in the street

a cat was crouched. From afar I thought

it was sniffing, but as I got closer

I knew. It was looking down at the ground,

looking at eternity, breathing,

its head down like a disappointment.

It was only a cat

dirty, black and white, solid

on a wooden beam, not underfed.

Cars swerving left. I picked it up,

this lump of breath.

What is the noble truth of death? Blindness

turned inward to endless seas

as the struggle ebbs far away.

Joseph Ceravolo (1934-1988): Cat of Eternity [February 25, 1987], from Collected Poems, 2012

#3 [Dhaka]: photo by Muhammad Imam Hasan, 1 April 2017

Street | Dhaka 2017: photo by Sohail Bin Mohammad Imam Hasan, 2 March 2017

 [Dubai]: photo by Hans, 7 March 2011

[Untitled]: photo by alejandra cárdenas, 6 May 2011

[U-Bahn, Berlin]: photo by Zbigniew Osiowy, 21 October 2012

 

animal spirits (partial views)

[Untitled]: photo by Setsiri Silapuwanchai, 22 February 2016

[Untitled]: photo by Setsiri Silapuwanchai, 22 February 2016

[Untitled]: photo by Setsiri Silapuwanchai, 22 February 2016

[fish, Songkhla, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 5 February 2017

[fish, Songkhla, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 5 February 2017

[fish, Songkhla, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 5 February 2017

[Untitled]: photo by Blue Rattanapol, 26 February 2017

[Untitled]: photo by Blue Rattanapol, 26 February 2017

[Untitled]: photo by Blue Rattanapol, 26 February 2017

hand [Bangkok]: photo by ISSARET CHALERMSOPONE, 15 December 2016
 

  
hand [Bangkok]: photo by ISSARET CHALERMSOPONE, 15 December 2016

 

hand [Bangkok]: photo by ISSARET CHALERMSOPONE, 15 December 2016

[Untitled]: photo by toufiq_ovi, 11 August 2016

[Untitled]: photo by toufiq_ovi, 11 August 2016

[Untitled]: photo by toufiq_ovi, 11 August 2016