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November 2009 
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Some Prayer Flags
Laura
Despite the cool spring wind
The prayer flags hang motionless.
ii.
I saw their soft gray cloth
With the skin of
My feeling mind.
iii.
The prayer flags made friends
With the weathered gray wood
They lay against.
iv.
The travel of hornets
Is all one thing.
The way they buzz
The tattered flags
Is part of that thing.
v.
The old dragon's mauve jaws
Carry age and the droop of solitude
In the prayer flags' upper
Left hand corners.
vi.
The prayer flags turned pink
In the softening light
Of April dusk.
vii.
Once a merry string of
Primary color,
The prayer flags take it easy now.
viii.
See how the flags resist
Disappearance.
They hang like pale strips of soft iron
From ten-penny nails.
ix.
Beneath the prayer flags
And boards of smoke-gray wood
A strip of metal
Collapsed in hot June rain.
x.
I told the prayer flags
A couple of my best secrets.
The gunmetal dog with the fat jowls
Kept quiet
While I talked.
xi.
I don't see the prayer flags
In the inky air of this
Thick summer evening.
If I listen and hear
What's behind them
I can see how their edges
Catch light.
xii.
A thick goldenrod cord
Takes care of all the prayer flags,
Bright like a sign on a highway,
Pinning them to
A buckled gray rail.
xiii.
The storm took a long time
To gather.
When it did,
It took the prayer flags with it,
Squares of ash and rose
Cut free
By a big green wind.
lks 5/25/09
Access: Public
Laura, I find this so very beautiful, your xiii ways of looking at prayer flags. Thirteen ways, one way. Thank you.
Love the photo, too.
Thank you very much, Rudyan. I thought of the idea after rereading Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, recently. I am so glad you liked the photo, too. Those flags were nothing but gray tatters by the time they were taken down.
a great poem to play with,,,I'm glad you did
Thanks. it was fun. I always second guess things. but I like it too.
Sounds like you had a good time writing this. Maybe thirteen good times.
Yes, at least.
that was amazing. to see everything there. the importance and contribution of all the parts. I like the one about hearing whats behind them. the prayer flags taking it easy as they fade.
Thank you, Jenni. I have some more now that these are gone but I haven't put them out yet. maybe they'll go somewhere different. I was at a sort of family reunion last weekend, which turned out to be fun, and by my cousin's dock, in amidst a tangle of jasmine vine, was a string of funky, tattered paper lanterns. glorious. I thought it was so cool that they were still there. I have some photos of them and want to write something to go along with the photos soon.
I will look forward to that. I love paper lanterns.
I always find it funny that Asian Buddhists, including the teachers, love modern synthetic materials for prayer flags, protection cords, etc. They are virtually indestructible.
Amazing, Laura. You're so talented, and the nod to the blackbirds is beautiful. :)
Beautiful, Laura. I love your writing! (in at least thirteen different ways…)
Jenni, Siona, Kathy, thanks. I am so happy y'all liked this. Ziji, I guess I would like some indestructible prayer flags. or lanterns. but the ones that fall apart are cool too.