Saturday, August 29, 2020
7-7-30pm
The Final Measure
I have not seen
nor can I guess how it unfurls,
burnt offerings,
all that remain of last year’s leaves,
white flags
splayed across a bright and empty sky.
Perhaps in rests,
the widening interval between notes,
between breaths,
tick and tock of a dying clock
until it stops.
Perhaps in troughs
lengthening between crests
until they flatly mirror the reddened sun.
I cannot
upon these wax and feathered wings,
inheritance of my fathers,
fly unto the morrow,
what is yet
or not to come:
fire and ice,
perhaps another bloom.
Nor can my eyes,
however vigilant,
shortsighted,
see beyond the shadows
to what undoubtedly awaits,
the final measure
of yet another fleeting race
in geologic time.
I can only mark the end,
beginning of each day.
Rejoice!
marveling by night
at what is bravely written in the stars.
Jabez Churchill
Cartwheels on the Sky Featuring Jabez Churchill on KGUA FM Gualala
This interview features Ukiah Poet Jabez Churchill.
Former Poet Laureate of Ukiah, Jabez W., Bill, Churchill first started submitting poetry for publication in 1979, became a member of the Ina Coolbrith Poertry Circle in Berkekey, maintaining this affiliation to date. He has been a poet teacher with California Poets in the Schools since 1998, and teaches poetry at Mendocino Co, Juvenile Hall.
As a bilingual poet, he writes in English and Spanish, and he has toured Spain and Cuba with a contingency of Bay Area poets. He has also been widely featured around Mendocino County, Berkeley, San Francisco, L.A. and Vancouver B.C.
He is a single dad, but his sons now have wives and children of their own, so now he is the grandfather of five! He is an avid water person and he sails San Francisco Bay and swims with pinnapeds wherever and whenever they pop up to say hi. He wants listeners to know that he has a deep connection to the south coast of Mendocino as his great-great grandparents, John and Carrie Johnson arrived in Pt. Arena on a Norwegian lumber schooner from Oslo in the 1850’s.
This show airs live from 7-7:30pm, Saturday, August 29 on KGUA FM 88.3 Gualala, and will stream live on the web at kgua.org