<div class="line">Those for whom no ritual applies,</div>
<div class="line">no text supplies the purpose of a day,</div>
<div class="line">no day becomes the rock on which we stand,</div>
<div class="line">no angel trumpets guidance from a star,</div>
<div class="line">no star determines who we really are,</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">have only vague direction with a name</div>
<div class="line">or compass point, a form that we embrace.</div>
<div class="line">Yet we rejoice when we do not despair</div>
<div class="line">as we rejoice in neutral gifts of air.</div>
<div class="line">For this we have invented our own grace.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">Do not mistake it for the grace of God</div>
<div class="line">which falls beyond our knowing anyway.</div>
<div class="line">Of any number, we will be the odd,</div>
<div class="line">a stable three or an unruly four,</div>
<div class="line">the little given by design or plan.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">Our crowded house, all windows and two doors,</div>
<div class="line">admits the music of the earth, the fugues</div>
<div class="line">of birdsong and percussive rain, the rain</div>
<div class="line">that comes like breathing. We sing and play.</div>
<div class="line">We learn the liturgy of each new day.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">Like art. Like some old <em>shtetl </em>of Chagall</div>
<div class="line">with floating lovers among the animals,</div>
<div class="line">our world is tumbling and still, a miracle</div>
<div class="line">that might be given words like happiness.</div>
<div class="line">The table has forgotten gravity.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/MasonObiter.mp3"></audio></figure>

Work

The Boardroom at the Edge of the Field

Obiter Dicta

<div class="line">At night a needle of sound nears my ear,</div>
<div class="line">waved off by a drowsy hand, yet the whine</div>
<div class="line">had a winged and long-legged body I see</div>
<div class="line">this morning, afloat above my coffee cup.</div>
<div class="line">Still here, still living, my little enemy?</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">I’ve made the journey to another year,</div>
<div class="line">another island where such creatures are</div>
<div class="line">in all their hunger, poised upon a nerve,</div>
<div class="line">their being honed into the sharpest spike.</div>
<div class="line">They too are dodging danger in the night.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/MasonPestilence.mp3"></audio></figure>

This Room

Time in the Time of Coronavirus

A Pestilence

<div class="line">To be old and not to feel it is a gift.</div>
<div class="line">To be supplanted and not to care. So be it.</div>
<div class="line">The birds are not supplanted by the air,</div>
<div class="line">the air, what’s left of it, by flood or fire.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">The effort of a life, the wasted hour,</div>
<div class="line">the kind word given to a stranger’s child</div>
<div class="line">are understood as kin and disappear.</div>
<div class="line">Time to be grass again. Ongoing. Wild.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/MasonNote.mp3"></audio></figure>

Gloves

Twenty Twenty

Note to Self

<div class="line">In airports everywhere I see</div>
<div class="line">people I think I know.</div>
<div class="line">Someone I used to be married to,</div>
<div class="line">someone who’s dead now.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">That one I wrote about,</div>
<div class="line">and blush at what I said.</div>
<div class="line">That one I met at a conference—</div>
<div class="line">no, he too is dead.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">I had a friend who looked like that</div>
<div class="line">when we were twenty.</div>
<div class="line">If I spoke to him I’m sure</div>
<div class="line">he’d tell me plenty.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">Another looks at me as if</div>
<div class="line">I’m a familiar ghost</div>
<div class="line">then turns away, discarding me</div>
<div class="line">among the rest.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">And when we fly, the earth below</div>
<div class="line">and all identities</div>
<div class="line">are cloud or glimpses of the sea</div>
<div class="line">or blazing cities</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">in the dark, our wing a blinking eye</div>
<div class="line">until the clock unwinds</div>
<div class="line">the dream, until the dream unbinds</div>
<div class="line">all that is passing by.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/MasonHaul.mp3"></audio></figure>

Birdwoman

Long Haul

<div class="line">He was from Rwanda, from Senegal—</div>
<div class="line">there had been much motion in his life.</div>
<div class="line">And did he miss his country? All</div>
<div class="line">the time, and yet he lived here with his wife</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">and children, who were very good at school.</div>
<div class="line">I said I’d always dreamed of Africa</div>
<div class="line">and wondered if he thought me an old fool</div>
<div class="line">for saying so. <i>No, no</i>, but it was far.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">So many things were far, so many things</div>
<div class="line">we wished for for our families</div>
<div class="line">were far. And we were men, not kings.</div>
<div class="line">He’d spoken French since he was three</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">and now the French was also far,</div>
<div class="line">his tongue was struggling with American.</div>
<div class="line">Once, he too wished to be a writer.</div>
<div class="line">But couldn’t he go to school again?</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">It’s not too late, I told him as I paid</div>
<div class="line">and finger-signed his little screen.</div>
<div class="line">But how did I know whether it was late,</div>
<div class="line">or half of what this gentle man had seen?</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<figure id="attachment_33413" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33413" style="width: 1000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://youtu.be/r2NlMnM3fqg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-33413" src="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/MasonD-FBs.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="537" srcset="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/MasonD-FBs.jpg 1000w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/MasonD-FBs-600x322.jpg 600w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/MasonD-FBs-300x161.jpg 300w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/MasonD-FBs-768x412.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-33413" class="wp-caption-text">David Mason is the guest on Rattlecast #64! <a href="https://youtu.be/r2NlMnM3fqg">Click here</a> to watch …</figcaption></figure><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/MasonCabbie.mp3"></audio></figure><p></p>

Shopping Cart
items

January 1, 2021Note to SelfDavid Mason

Sign up for our Newsletter

January 1, 2021Note to SelfDavid Mason

Related

Obiter Dicta by David Mason

A Pestilence by David Mason

Long Haul by David Mason

A Cabbie in America by David Mason