I am not an intellectual
But I have read some of their books
Never gave a lecture
I like the Baggins and the Tooks

7th grade English teacher
Asian history too
Danced in Tel Aviv
Dr. Frenkel is a Jew

1985
Florida in the sun
2009
Taipei 101

              Fo Guang Shan

          Q: little buddhist nun

Shakespeare in the Staunton night
I-81 in snow

The Tempest on the stage
Rene Thornton years ago

The professor lived in Italy
A time or two you know

Als Ick Kan gentleman
Ay yay yay yay yo!

Songs of love
Songs of betratrayal
Discoveries!
Terror in the Night

Un pequito hope
Taco trucks
Memories
Two green lights

Reno risks
Reno Rendezvous
Play the Ace
Go down with a fight

Sage Ridge School
Today's Tom Sawyer
Carolina Inn
One Night's delight

         Insight!

the future changing the past
          Westminster Abbey Mass
                 she was a grand wee lass ...


                          silent prayers

Unde Malum?
Yo no se. And I never will.

Don't like David Brooks.
Don't like George F. Will.

Did like Taipei 101
Still do like it still

If she calls and says, Please come
You know I surely will.

Father Greeley was different
That is why I liked him
He took risks
He spoke out true

Chicago is winter snow
Dublin the Book of Kells
Paris Sacre Couer
Carolina sky of blue

               Y tu?

Asks Chris Chambers.

An any old kinda day
Kind that comes and slips away

Harry still in my mind
I too have brothers. Fathers find.

Oranges today and taqueria
How are you? Nice to seeya

Tomorrow Thai and Italy
Mother Mary: Let it be!

ignorance, fear, and malice
       Donald Trump’s phallus
                 icky-sticky, ice white
                        cold. cruel. callous.

Writers leave behind their words
The Artist in her art

Do you fear to be forgotten
When you too depart?

J'aime Simone Weil
Not Napolean Bonaparte

The silence is eternal
Does the Eternal have a heart?

Harry Chapin
And the Night that Made America Famous

But now we only fear
Everyone will simply blame us

Harry, we are lost
We could use your intercession

From the Land that Poet’s Prize
pour forth our confession

                       Amen

Marguerite Porete
Burned at the stake
Sweet Sir Galahad
Lady of the Lake

Giordano Bruno
Exoplanets spin
John Henry Newman
Have to lose to win

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
St. Stephansdom in snow
Flight from Jerusalem
Me solo below

John Singer Sargent
Boston in the ice
South Side of Chicago
Ooo dat girl looked nice!

             In a trice

I think God may be beyond good and evil
Like blue and flickering fire
O'Really stole a stallion
I remember Richard Pryor

Solitude is peaceful
And sad
And lonely
Higher.

Bipolar
Older
Told her
Tryer

      Tired.

2023
My year to wait and wait
Pregnant silences
Destiny, not Fate

I read the Guardian
Candidates debate
Exoplanets spin
A little help for Cate

Exoplanets spin
Something radiates
I walk the Empty Diamond
I watch the license plates

I watch and wait and wonder
Formulate my plans
Patientia
Solitary Man

          Will they understand?

From Mr. Markson and Mr. Eliot
I learned the Way of Allusions
Kinda like a game
Pick out the profusions

Dylan does the same
I believe I'll Dust my Broom
Never been to Notre Dame
Do not talk on Zoom

Been to South Side Chicago
Been to Wrigley Field
Ben Stiller's Quinlin
My son too New Dealed

He plays Magic the Gathering
And also Destiny 2
Thailand for the Jai
James at JMU

               2040 blue

an unthrift: ah! true, true
but (I hope) also an honest man

no need to candy coat
just want to do the best I can

this world’s a horror story
but other worlds again began

North to the San Juan islands
Peace to the old Cheyenne

Didn't sleep too well
Cemetery Road
Mount St. Michel
Ghost of Old Tom Joad

Tired, weary waiting
Not much to do today
3 hours work
Basketball to play

Exoplanets spin
Extrasolar water
Never read Anais Nin
Don't know what he taught her

Merciful within
Compassion for myself
If Trump or Desantis win
Then Legolas the Elf

                  Guelph

I would not recommend marriage
Lost in Translation
Silently in Kyoto
Tokyo the train

I see Shakyamuni
Sometimes in Indian restaurants
Emerald in Bangkok
Alive in Thich Nhat Hanh

Life is Suffering
And true gratitude
I know not why I live
I know not when I'll die

Robert Parker
Susan Meek
Jesse James
Life of Pi

              Ay! Ay! Ay!

Wish I did not have
The sense of meaningless dread
The human monstrosities
Are there rocks Ahead?

The Duomo in Florence
Marble pink and green
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Chicago: Things Not Seen

George W. Lies
America the Ignorant
Diet Coke, large fries
Roy Scheider, Ben Vereen

William Blake's Tyger
Amos 3:6
Phillip K. yesterday
Yesterday at Moby ****'s

                     666

Old John Joseph
Was a man with 2 first names
Corey running past me
Walnut Heights remains

Flickering in my memory
Toy room, garden, bar
Walnut Heights, Ohio
Exoplanet star

African American religion
Soul - it's in the air
I told Jesus
Highwater Everywhere

Now I read of Nollywood
Morrocan mint tea
Jerrod Pope, Ernest Thomas
Sacromentally

                      Si.

The light now is greyblue
Birds awake and singing

I still think of you
In the silence I am bringing

Memories in my motion
Wishes in my mind

Distance in devotion
Fare well and be kind

            Designed?

Thank you kindly coincidence
80s rock N' roll
Mr. Michael Dirda
Wonder Used Books

The torment of Harvey Dent
Mormonism is crazy
Prayers for Mike and Steve
Busboys and cooks

The sound of passing traffic
Peacefully sleeping son
Done? Selah. Done.
Gonna move my rooks

Not much. Quiet. Lonely.
Curse on Crawford, Texas
I still like San Antonio
The way the feather looks

                    Flying

Slowly guacamole
7 37 72
More than one life only
Bangkok Buddha blue

Patience. Exoplanets.
Hand on the baton
Science fiction movies
Sci Fi Gamla Stan

Refried bean burritos
Vegetarian summer rolls
University of Toledo
Cool Grey City goals

                Revolutions!

The bipolar brings grandiosity
I fly and think I'm badass
Then guilt, fear, regret
I no longer go to Mass

Why this need to fight?
The world cannot be saved
Why this loneliness?
Why so often near the grave?

We took a train in Tokyo
Deer park distant Nara
Plant a Buddha seed
America has Mara

Plant a Buddha seed
Sakyamuni, meet Ms. Mary
I need your help, my family
Chaos terror scary

Plant a Buddha seed
Patience please and wise
Get her help she needs
Protect her, empathize

              Ignore her lies.

what meaning to Beyond?
what discoveries unknown?

what exoplanet entities
within the outer zone?

what capital letters
might divine through our cell phones?

who would know if coincidence
was planned from some thrilled throne?

who could blame the aliens
for not wanting to live Alone?

I like the poems of place
because I travel on

Golden Gate space
dear Taipei, Taiwan

Sent the letter from Dublin
Truly, She’s the One

We three free in Reno snow
Sledding so much fun!

Somerset Maugham
The Razor's Edge
Carefully I proceed

Lake Lebarge
Homer and Marge
A pal's last need a thing to heed

Thank you dad for the money
Keeps me going
Keeps me fed

She's as sweet as Tupelo Honey
Erin Go Bragh!
Water and Wisdom Wed

Leonardo's compassion
Sympathetic study of an outsider
Florence
Viva Italy!

Gets dark here lonely
1837
Thank you for the diner
For Alan and Michelle

I liked Siena
Also Vienna
My place quite quiet
I live quietly

The Battle of South Mountain
General Reno killed
Antietam and antique store
Tonight feeling fairly well

                   Elle

Prayers for protection
   Brigid in the rain
         mi familia

Not very good at in the moment
My mind a million miles away
Often unsatisfied
Californ I A

San Francisco Zen
But only for one hour
Homeless black man dies
Sign says Rest in Power

May the 4th is coming
I like Cristo Rey
Green lightsaber
Eddie Murray. Lee May.

           Triple Play!

Highly highly anxious
Please help me relax
Prayers for Toledo, Ohio
The University and my Uncle Jack's

I like my little bookshelf
Got my TBR
Miss the bullet trains
But like my Camry car

Peace comes dropping slow
Sometimes lonely as the rain
Georgia on My Mind
Anna Andresian, Cameron Crain

I walk the Empty Diamond
At times pray on my knees
At times stand by the statue
Please baby please

               Frenemies!

Often I pray more for than to
Worried for my family
Wishing for my friends
Afraid

Politics portends
America could again go deeply wrong
Somebody done somebody wrong song
Tirade

The Hobbit and Poe on my shelf
The fighting knives of Legolas the Elf
Satellite Beach
Not Miami Dade

Grateful for quiet
Conversations
Board games
Magic played

              Nat turner: flayed.

3 days in Vienna
All that beautiful snow
Yo soy un theonerd
I'm no Romeo

Got a monk in me
Yo silencio
Unknowable is God
And I love her so

             Reno!

I experience coincidence
Kinda weird at times
The doc says it's nothing
Everybody has 'em

Jung says synchronicity
Noncausal meaningfulness
Due to Unus Mundus
Mysticism is real

Some say apophenia
The mind in desperation
Tryin' to make connection
Tryin' to make sense

I say I don't know
But I wait for it to happen
My departed Uncle Marty
At times I almost feel

              Dharma Wheel

The Trumpfucks are now flocking
To SauRon Desantis
The Dark Lord is Rising
Rising in the Southeast

Almost 70 percent
Of professional mathematicians
Are Platonists, even today.
Have you read Plato on the Great Beast?

Plato is also quite instructive
On demagogues
And how tyranny
Always comes from democracy

Xiao gives me Chinese food
Here in Boonsboro
Hunan vegetable, white rice
A vegetarian feast.

             my my xie xie ni

Readers are plentiful
Thinkers are rare
If you encounter the latter
Reader, beware!

Ambiguous and Ambivalent
No way to avoid
Human, all too human
Bipolar and paranoid

But also truly trying
Also wisdom wish
Sor Juana mystic flying
Also flying fish

I'm prepared to wait for centuries
To wait with Thich Nhat Hanh
I too traveled in Thailand
Saw the Temple of the Dawn

Touch the past, Touch the future
Touch the Tyger, Touch the sin
Touch the trust, Touch the fear
Touch must lose to win

           Thomas the Twin

Back to day 1
Lay in bed and wait
Talk to my darling sons
8088

Tired. Lonely. Tired.
I touch home plate
Despite, despite, despite ...
Destiny not Fate

                  Sensate.

searching for an apartment
       sensing solitude
       bookstore blues ...

seeking seed, I read in need.

obsessions and confessions
       transgressions, soul sessions
                processions from possessions
                              intercessions?

Just an amateur
I don't write for money
Ben Shapiro is a racist
Steve Martin is funny

Very little influence
Almost none at all
Took the train from London
River Eden, Wetheral

                 Hey, y'all!

Aiden and my time with the Irish
       quietly trying to find fish
              Bernie is my wish!

There's no essential difference
Between sanity and insanity
Consciousness is painfulness
At night I walk the floor

          Inner Harbor, Baltimore

Fiction has to be plausible
That's not true of non-fiction

Some wounds aren't gauzable
Still the benediction

The imaginary can be real
Just ask Professor Pasulka

The bodhisattvas return
As Mahayana tulkas