Central California Poetry Journal

Volume 2000 Number 1

The Poetry of Central California Page 0003

The Poetry of Virgil Dughi

Virgil Dughi was born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley. He has been a soldier, student, day laborer, carpenter, building contractor, and college instructor. Mr. Dughi presently resides in Modesto, California with his wife and two daughters, and teaches high school English in Manteca, California. He writes to make sense of the world.

Levitt Meadow and the Ponderosa Pine

Levitt Creek roars
across the silence
of my soul
wondering/watching
the majestic two hundred
and twenty foot
Ponderosa Pine
rigid in the warm
August wind

I know this tree
stood above wagoners
crossing the mountains
in route
to gold fields
and rich valley
farmlands
due west
before statehood

it stood stately
watching brothers
of Ishi hunt deer
here while the
colonies were still
at war with
crazy King George
over representation
and taxation

two hundred
and fifty some
deep winter snows
have melted and
washed Levitt Creek
clean since
this adult conifer
was a mere
sampling

in this immediate
silent moment
I hear the giant
whisper across time,
wind, and water
a special secret
about longevity
and continuity
and underlying
unity
I must learn

we all must learn

a fall into the moment

equinox past two weeks now
light slanting from the six-thirty sunset
reflects the curled golden leaves
against browning grass

as twilight dims toward darkness
I pause breathe in deeply
the chill evening air
and focus

another season turns
to another season
as I reach my own
metaphorical
autumn

seasoned and
weathered in age
I feel profoundly
the deep rhythms
life presents
and see truth
in this turning

the wheel turns
and returns

the illusion:
change is decay

the truth:
cycles of spiritual simplicity
reside in each of our moments

All text and images in The Central California Poetry Journal are copyrighted. Copyright by © by Scott Galloway 1999. All rights are reserved. See main Journal page for copyright information.
Authors and poets submitting original materials to this journal retain all rights to their original work, except those rights specifically assigned in writing to Solo Publications including the right to publish the submitted work in The Central California Poetry Journal. The poems on this page are copyrighted by the author. Copyright © Virgil Dughi 1999.

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