I could not write a novel
My attention not that long
Just these little poems
Poetry ping pong

Emily was a recluse
Like Billionaire Bruce Wayne
I read of Chinese hermits
But I live on a street called Main

Istanbul in photos
Quite a calling sight
She and I and honesty
One flight 3 night's delights

Solamente una hora
San Francisco Zen
The Buddha sits in silence
Johnny Cash in Folsom Pen

                    Reno!

Japanese snowbell, Mongolian yurt
    we walk and talk - no fear, no hurt
           the bell she rings, I become alert

                                   attention.

not much
  solitude
      sad

I pray for John
  Courage on
   Gamla Stan

       Amen.

More than one life only
New York, the other side
Curious coincidence
Susan. Trappist 1.

Knoa in conversation
Navy. Air Force. Thomas More.
The need to battle back
SJ. Thy will be done.

After death discovered
Workin' on a mystery
Ambiguity
Maybe business for my son

Guadalupe green
The Buddha olive, brown
When Love Comes To Town
River Eden riverrun

              Sheep. Deer. Nun.

It's difficult to try to accept
Especially if you are religious
That there is no Answer
Mystery. Death. Adios.

Susan's gentle voice
Dr. Thomas smiling
Moroccan mint tea
Far, far, far. Close.

Trinity Episcopal in Boston
Thank you, Cate
I got the Taipei job
Richard Rodriguez: not gay. Morose.

Me too
What he does with italics!
Sunlit Italy
holy ghost

             The Guardian, Mr. Dirda
             not the Washington Post

to not fear the terror of the Night
          I endure unsure
        ocean sky in sight

a grateful look back, places and plight
       dear Dublin, sunlit Stockholm
              also hospital sites

I learned as farang; I learned from fights
              suffered quite often
               as a shy guy might

If eternal nothingness is the only Height
              to the Void with courage!
                     shunyata insight.

Once confessed my sins
To Fr. Ron Torina SJ
Also to Judi Kemerait Livingston
Dawn goes down to day

Used to read at Seattle U.
America Magazine on my lunch break
Homeless shelters can be chaotic
One day they say a Seattle earthquake

Once wrote to Walter Ong
His last name very unique
Sing a Dylan song
Sing for Susan Meek

SJW
That would be my mom
35 years later
Still can't forget the Prom

                     87!

Kingston Trio, Folk revival
San Francisco Bay

Santa Rosa, my youngest child
My middle in Taipei

Fairfax for the oldest one
What else can I say?

3 is a magic number
3 times 'round I pray

             Patience.

working in the bookstore again
conversations in the night

Australia, Ireland, Johnny Cash
my emotions taking flight

the store is closed, the quiet comes
we now work without a fight

driving home with Dylan on
the starlit deer a sacred sight

Cate, Wendy, Susan
Judi, Andy, Bob
In my solitude
Disability, no job

I wanna go down grateful
Wanna change the future
Wanna be remembered
Zero on the lob

1937
The Hobbit, Guernica
Bonhoeffer executed
In the bathroom I sit and sob

Apophenia
Poetry as mania
Poetry good insania
Eliade in Romania

              Against the Masters

                       The Mob!

He's gonna be an astronaut
Maybe take us higher
Father Greeley freely
George W. Liar

I tweaked my back yesterday
Hurts when I reach down
In Dublin meant to be
When Love Comes to Town

Notre Dame Cathedral
Paris, City of Light
Disability
Courage in the fright

55 and falling
Moroccan mint tea
Talk with my sons
Xie xie. Xie xie ni.

               We

I dreamed of her just now
Said I know I'm mentally ill
But I do love you
She kissed me on my mouth

Dreams are fantasies
Illusions
Cannot be
Sing me way down South

                   Wendy!

By train from Boston to Buenos Aires
            reading to blind Borges
                  to make you see.

No, Mr. Keillor
Life doesn't get better and better
The darkness finds the light

I might like Novalis
Don't like Sein und Zeit

Don't like Martin Luther
Kierkegaard's alright!

Do like Bavarian pretzels
Abgeschiedenheit

               Heidelberg!

the post, the fight, the widening rift
    the solitude, the depression lifts
                     The Gift

Si Deus, Unde Malum
Does indeed destroy

Every human lie
But not human every joy

All attempts to think
Through theodicy

End in total failure
The Silence of Eternity

But perhaps here lies the hope
Amidst the Dark of Night

Even though everything
Will not turn out right

A Creative Cosmic Artist
Lives within our brains

Moving us from within
In this world of persistent pain

Driving, driving, driving
Towards beauty we can't quite see

A reaching and yearning
For mystical unity

This old world new transformed
Through the view of poetry!

Will it ever happen?
If it does, I'll never know.

Dublin, Seattle, Charlotte
Softfall cedar snow

Shunyata, Emptiness
Train from Tokyo

Desafortunadamente
      Pero arigato.

..........Sallyport and pregnant Sally...............
I’m down now, mom - please help me rally
      intercede, these words do tally ...

                       I miss you!

Americans love money
Violence and foreign wars
Mr. Garvey is painfully funny
Thai street food and Thai ******

The Buddha sits in silence
Gentle, knowing smile
Come Sail Away on my radio
I do not turn the dial

Pondicherry Zoo
I hope I'm a wounded healer
Solamente uno email
But in my soul I feel her

I hope I go down grateful
Thank you, Life, for my sons
Souped up 72
Taipei 101

                  Protection!

The idea is that religion and poetry are identical in essence and differ only in the way in which they are attached to practical affairs. Poetry is called religion when it intervenes in life and religion, when it merely supervenes upon life, is seen to be nothing but poetry.

                            - George Santayana

I got political anger
I got the Great Unknown
Prayers for the animals
Through the walls the city groans

Mexican Spanish teacher
Talking in Taipei
Japanese sea creatures
Could go all the way

Dylan in my stereo
Orlando, Tahoe, DC
Springsteen in Chapel Hill
1 and 1 makes 3

My uneventful life
Movies, music, books
Starship Enterprise
The Bagginses and the Tooks

             2 Rooks

The drama all in my mind
Comes out in my poems

But if you met me you would find
Boredom overflowin'

                 Geek knowin'

Another Messiah in Shakespeare’s person
      Melville against Michael Gerson
              NASA now Universin’ ...


          brave new worlds rearrange
                 Wondrous Strange!

to disappear forever
     sound and fury
          silent ring ...



                  No

              Nothing.

Dostoevsky in love
He says that books are life

Exoplanets above
Please peace. Peace for my wife.

A friend or two for me
Just a little conversation

Asleep in the rain
Teleportation?

Charleston. Savannah. New Orleans.  
                 Sweet Tea.
                       me

I waken early
dream deep done

6:37
sleeping sons

think of what I sent
She’s the One!

Cristo Rey
Midnight Sun

Dublin post office
Wee Irish fun:

                       Resistance!

deer park in Nara
  transient trains
    and the rain...

According to Galaxy Quest

I'm attracted to the cosmic
Have been since my youth

Both in hope and fear
Eliade's truth

I am not a saint
But he said I was a gift

I like Rothko paint
My dad gave him a lift

Alas, the death obsession
Help me gentle go

One man come he to justify
One man to overthrow

          Yoko yo yo!

Sexuality is difficult
Dream, baby, dream

Fatherhood is joy
Team, baby, team

Possibly infinite universe
Scream, baby, scream

Don't come back, Mr. Bezos
Meme, baby, meme

                   UFOs!

Death to the Knights of Columbus
Cristobal Colon-izer
Thomas Builds-the-Fire
A medicine man and wiser

If we can forgive our fathers
What then, my friend?
The future yet unwritten
3710

I like Southern Rock
CCR, Lynyrd Skynyrd
Rabbi Nahman believed
Always to be a beginner

I sit at the bar
Alex saved my Poe
Alex aware in Tucson
One man to Overthrow!

        But I slowly go

I think I’m going to die
without ever seeing her again

Tokyo to Kyoto
upon the Shinkansen

Will I too disappear
Like I’ve never, ever been?

leaving Kyoto - train station, Zen temples
       thunder, wonder, one with her?
                    silent shunyata

Time is a brutal but a careless thief
It steals, but it leaves behind

You broke into my heart
Leaving fragments in my mind

I'm no one important
Barely even matter
2 on, 2 men out
Hey batter, batter!

Tired, very tired
Taxi for my son
To get through the summer
Con un pequito fun

                    Fun!

Chapel Hill bell tower
   no man knows the day or hour
                kairos, come close!

I'll never actually find it
But maybe that's not the point

The Reno sky big blue
Future to anoint

Calyx now has earpods
I listen to the rain

2037
Toledo, Ohio. Toledo, Spain.

                      Ole!

The isolation is what's so scary
Trapped in my own world
Prayers to Mother Mary
Please send a womangirl

But I live alone
Dream of foreign trains
Maybe Heidelberg
Surely La Mancha, Spain

I like cucumber sushi
Vegetarian tacos too
Pita bread and hummus
Chips and Mountain Dew

Board games with my brothers
Phone calls with my sons
Poe's Annabel Lee
Longfellow's Day is Done

Something for the animals
I truly wish to do
Flying in the sky
Pondicherry Zoo

I am a taxi service
Carolina blue
Courage moving forward
Mario Cuomo Seattle U.

            Reading.

I'm not a theologian
Don't wanna be a party of one
Those tidal pools in Monterrey!
My beautiful young sons

Life is a tragedy
Black smoke, big blue sky
Romeo and Juliet
To love, too extreme, to die

Staunton aglow in snow
81 South
I launch the car into the night
Wondrous strange in my mouth

                  The Tempest!

walking Prague, ancient bell
      Chapel Hill clocktower does tell
               my love in vain - but I wish her well...


                                       soundings.

.............Bilbo to slithery Smaug............
           Inigo to the 6 fingered man
             Poe to critics who insult
                  I too plot and plan.

Markson and Melville in the morning
      my wonder wander warning
           brown beauty borning ...

               I wait and meditate
                         too late?

a bit ridiculous
all the philosophy

ashes to ashes, dust to dust
the end of you and me

grey sky today
far from bluegreen sea

phone call with my son
grateful gratefully

slow and sad and slow
I went walking alone
All these little poems
On my little black cell phone

Please protect my Q
And my other 2
Don't know what to do
Ohm mane padme ohm

lifelong obsessions
         poetic confessions
                  letterhead!