'Why not study ethnobotany' by Clem Starck

Poetry by Clem Starck, photo credit by Carla Perry.


“Why not study ethnobotany,
or practice juggling?
I could learn to read Chinese, and start in
on the ten thousand poems extant
of Lou You.
It’s unlikely I’ll take up blacksmithing,
or become a backhoe operator.
For the time being
I think I’ll just concentrate
on finding the words
for the mist that rises from
the fields in the morning,
or the moon
as seen once from Joel’s truck
on the way home from a job in Corvallis.”
- Clem Starck