A poem from the Santa Cruz Mountains-dwelling renaissance man.
Jonathan Livingston Slug
Looking through my window
at the great redwood
I noticed a sliver of yellow
between the slabs of bark.
A Banana slug
mascot of these parts
moving ever so slowly upwards,
a lifetime dedicated to reach a greater height.
I spy him/her/it at 120 feet
and then through binoculars at 200
and at 205 he is bathed full body by sunlight
for the first time in the species.
And in that moment
with all 22 neurons firing
Jonathan Livingston Slug
attains a simple but pure form of enlightenment
Bruce Damer
Boulder Creek, March 1995
Bruce Damer is a designer of many things ranging from virtual worlds for NASA to models and simulations for the origin of life. He resides with Galen Brandt on their farm in the Santa Cruz mountains where they host creative and visionary projects and gatherings amongst tomatoes, peacocks, pigs and a barn filled with vintage computers. More on Bruce at www.damer.com
Local Poets, Local Inspiration, edited by Robert Sward, appears weekly online and monthly in Santa Cruz Weekly. Selections are by invitation.
