The music has to be right
So the punishments will be right.
That's what Confucius believed
I stop by Mason Nation
I am very well received

JMU is purple and gold
For me, Albert Camus
Chicago is Maroon
I'm also Carolina blue
She's UNCW

           American Cosmic!

Yes, the anxiety and creativity
They truly flow together

Then comes internal terror
As unexpected as the weather

Sometimes I am pinned
Can barely even function

Sometimes I am twinned
My mind at The Other Junction

My blessing and my curse
All my adult life

It probably could be worse
I pray to Beauty born in strife

                        Endurance!

She said vulnerable and unexpected
Now two of my favorite words

12:37: it feels directed
I wonder if she heard?

Can't sleep again, maybe Trazadone
Not much to do tomorrow

Living so often pain
Disappointment and soul sorrow

                  Synchronicities?

Arrogant American women
Shy and geeky men
California sun
San Francisco Zen

A little basketball
Scifi does pretend
She's my enemy
Do I have a friend?

            Wends.

Angkor Wat in photos
   Visions of Vishnu
          fantasia!

The American Abyss
2024
1 Thai tea
2 Thai ******

Shenandoah Shakespeare
Have I been here before?
Quaint and Curious
Tales of forgotten lore

My son in Annapolis
Me in Baltimore
1137
4044

The rich get richer
Please protect the poor
Shots ring out
Ocean's pounding roar

            In the Midnight Hour:
         She cried more, more, more!

Scientific American
September 2019

One foot in popular culture
Music, movies, YouTube, cars
One in universities
3 hands 4 this love that we call ours

Trains are more communal
Thomas Aquinas the Common Doctor
PSAT at Robinson
I volunteer to proctor

Women in their 50s
The best middle school English teachers
Withit-ness is what they have
Picollo players under the bleachers

He is a Travelin' Soldier
They are the Dixie Chicks
Charleston at night
3037, not 1776

       Meet me at Moby ****'s.

Iranian women uncover their hair
I eat lunch at Moby ****
Awakening is becoming aware
All Walls Fall, even the thick

Persepolis is a good graphic novel
The Mosque of Colors in Shiraz amazes
Moby **** has delicious hummus
Revolutions proceed in stages

You are not a drop in the ocean
You are the entire Ocean in a single drop
Rumi reverses the Buddhists
Mr. Rumi - Krop Kun Kop

In Thailand motorcycle taxis
I would like to read more of Buddhadasa
Saw the Dalai Lama in Seattle
I am ambivalent: will he defend Lhasa?

                  Ferry boats!

I'm freer when I write than when I speak
Un Escritor
I'm still in love with Susan Meek
Curious and quaint forgotten lore

I'm a kind of bipolar geek
Verona, not Elsinore
Do we find just what we seek?
Inner Harbor, Baltimore

                   Soar!

Continual disorder
Things Fall Apart
Marguerite Porete
Napolean Blown Apart

Greece was the Sea
Blue and green and fire
She was to me
As I was to desire

Kyoto was quiet
I remember the train station
Homecoming dress
Bipolar elevation

53 and falling
Probably not much more
Extinction is forever
Verona, not Elsinore

             4044

I'd like to live in libraries
Maybe she studies my story
Maybe she smiles twice
Maybe a little glory

I think my green eyes matter
Hey batter batter
Pescatarian platter
Hakeem the Dream and Robert Horry

Europe was quite wonderful
Stockholm, Helsinki, Paris
Commander Jason McTaggart
Overcoming Sarris

I'm awake at 5:03
Dublin meant to be
Taco truck? Si. Si!
Rickey Henderson and Roger Maris

When the peace does come
Gratitude!
I rest upon my bed

Insects sing
No wedding ring
Just love for her instead

The night time is the right time
Venice
Istanbul

Walk upon the water
Drink tea
Pleasure pull

               Wearing the wool.

Hair handed monks
Are the loneliest kind
No home, No home at all
Not even the monastery

Her hair was long and brown
Quite beautiful
To her waist
A sight indeed, Mother Mary

A little music tonight
Country Roads
Tom Dooley
Basketball at the bar

I keep Playin'
Practicin'.
Reading the passing lanes
Ball aqui, Mind far

          Trappist 1 Star!

I regard myself as ridiculous
But I do love words
Taught for almost 18 years
The Giver in Taipei

Julius Caesar in Reno
Brutus is deluded
I am Cinna the poet!
Common people rage away

Little Sage Ridge School
My friend John
Coach a little basketball
Tahoe in the snow

53 and falling
2 Master's degrees
1 horrible marriage
No one really knows

            Elsewhere

My son is going  to report on Elon Musk
The owl of Minerva flies only at dusk
****** fantasies; fantasies of trust
Love is an angel disguised as lust

She is an angel; like Tupelo honey
She's also ordinary; I don't have much money
Stockholm in the summer, pretty and sunny
Mr. Will Ferrell frequently funny

For ourselves and our posterity
I plant a mustard seed
2037
A pal's last need a thing to heed

At my best I wait, throw a good bounce pass
Candidates debate
He studies.
She was a grand wee lass

You people of the future
And you people of the past
Still in this together
Hey Now! Everlast.

She said unexpected
Now a treasured word
She said unexpectable
(I think she probably heard)

Thai Buddhas are quite patient
Emerald or brown
Silent in the forest
Teaching in the town

She gave me mango lhassi
Said it's on the house
If she asked me I would answer:
Please take off your blouse

But she doesn't speak
Buddhamind not-two
Your memory in me
My emotions swim in you

              Es verdad.
                It's true.

The Lion, Isaac Luria
Curious Kabbalah

I have been to Israel
Sha na na na na nah

Read Ari Shavit's book
Triumph and Tragedy

Blue in the flying flag
Blue Sea of Galilee

      Green Hope
        Blue me

He is from Bolivia
We talk as I eat
California snow
Green shoes on my feet

Nevada has the desert
Jerusalem was brown
Little Sage Ridge School
When Love Comes To Town

Yo hablo Espanyol
Pero solamente un pequito
I was born in Knoxville
My parents from Toledo

She's in Colorado
He likes Baltimore
1985
2024

  Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Eternity like sleep
Except we never waken

She made me weep and weep
Because I was forsaken

Ravioli on the way
I eat solo alone

Honeymoon in Italy
But now I'm far from Rome

Human life is exile
Where, O where, is home?

He said God is a bad Father
Because He allowed His Son to be crucified
Abe Lincoln freed
George W. Lied

I studied philosophy
Impressed by Socrates
All alone at 3:13
Crying on my knees

It's no good without the girl
But I can't seem to find her
I'd like to whisper in her ear
And I'd like to be behind her

Fantasies often don't come true
What then are they for?
In my quiet quest
I open a closing door

             Por la poor

Wilmington and Rice
     if I send, I send twice
               waiting for...

Poetry is different
The little contains a lot

Yesterday my sons
With my brother Scott

Shamanic initiation
Postcards that I bought

Sent them all away
Readers: that's what I got

                   Aliens?
                  I thought.

so Fernando Suarez was my high school Spanish teacher in La Florida the Land of Flowers he used to take pictures of me when I fell asleep in class with a flash to wake me up with drool running out of my mouth on to my desk and books because I stayed up late after basketball practice studying and before I lived in La Florida I lived in Sacramento California is also a Spanish word as are Santa and Rosa where my youngest son was born Teresa of Avila said she wasn't afraid of Satan me neither but she was afraid of those who are afraid of Satan and I am afraid of predation at times and annihilation but not of the Dark Night of the Soul one Dark Knight Chicago I went out unseen ah! the sheer grace Joe Perez and a beautiful Mexican girl were in CCD with me in Sacramento and Alex who is from Tucson played a lot of ping pong in Chicago wonder and exile in the new world amazing Cabeza de Vaca la Raza Cosmica Richard Rodriguez discovery of Brown my mother went to the University of Toledo my mother Sally Brown who died in Georgetown.          

                                 Viva!

It always pains me
To see birds eat worms

I wish that God
Could find other terms

Her hair is straight
But then she perms

Her ******* so soft!
Her *** so firm!

                 Yes.

Not to take the fight to the enemy
Rather, to experiment
Placements, provocations

Plurality y Ambiguity
Mysterium Tremendum
Leading conversations

Slowly guacamole
Shabu Shabu
Destinations

Long term view
Patientia
Revelations?

He don't believe that Heaven waits
For only those that congregate
She don't believe in Heaven.

I'm tired and bored and lonely
1137

Why keep writing?
Not much else to do

Siena Cathedral
Pondicherry Zoo

Took some risks
In 2022

Did it work?
Not yet through

     two clues

providence indeed as inherently ambiguous
not yet Alaska or Hawaii, only contiguous
time for real rest, time for resistance that's rigorous...


                                       the Nation!

Even when I know it's meaningless
I just cannot accept it

The fight remains inside me
I go down, but go down swinging

Death is like an old paperboy
He comes ah! to collect it

I meet him on the porch
But his paper I am flinging

            Sacramento No!

*** is difficult
Riding trains is easy
When she was 16
Yes indeed she pleased me

*** is fantasy
Touch but do not reach
Reality is dailiness
Latin he did teach

Fr. Reginald Foster
Terminator 2
One of a kind to find
First Things I.O.U.

Am I still a teacher?
Do I Mason Nation?
ChiTown, don't give up.
Even with predation.

Batman: echolocation.

72 microseasons
Nippon summer nights
Rieko y Takahiro
101 in lights

Kobayashi Issa
Born on June 15
Slowly, snail, slowly
Irish eyes are green

   Arigato, Susan Darlene...

I don't like George F. Will
Lifelong American racist ray
A beautiful mind is a lifelong thrill
My sons callooh! callay!

Moroccan mint tea, A.P. Hill
San Francisco Zen
Zen Center still is silent still
3710

Never been to whipporwill
Been to San Anton
Dr. Thomas, first name Bill
The Green Flash found in Rome

I said to her if looks could ****
George Will would be quite dead
Hummingbirds near my windowsill
Wonder where I'll be led?

                     Tecumseh!

Women as they actually are
Which ain't very pretty
Stockholm in the summer
Such a pretty city

The Dark Knight in Chicago
Silent Guardian. Protects.
Dying Catholic Church
In silence genuflects

Hungarians in Vienna
St. Stephansdom in snow
Vegetarian sausage
Hidey hidey hidey **!

Lord Shiva the Destroyer
Exoplanet star
Travel all 10000 miles
Take off in my car

       Astrobiology. El Mar!

clouds again climb high
           still I stroll - shy guy
                   no answer to my Why?

sacred songs, the aroma of Christ
  paschal moon, I pledge my life
       Als Ick Kan, truly twice

The isolation is lifelong
We never seem to touch

Life is Suffering
The Buddha said as such

Suchness in the flowers
Suchness in the rice

I remember Michael Jackson
I remember Vincent Price

Thriller.  Very nice.

If it's eternal sleep
Do we still somehow dream?
University of Chicago
I do want you on my team

Don't remember much of Paris
Do remember Gamla Stan
Scifi bookstore
Avoid the wrath of Khan

Walnut Heights, Ohio
Frank's pizzeria
Mayberry Elementary School
Almost I can see ya

Snow Falling on Cedars
And in my lonely mind
Her smile is such comfort
I wanna travel blind

                 Find?

American despair
Guns again surround

Republicans insane
Ignorance abounds

Demagogue in power
People lost not found

Empire in collapse
Chaos comes to town

                    Karma bound.

So much pain in this brief life
Fog upon the bridge
Som tam at the restaurant
Diet Coke in the fridge

Coastal California
New York City snow
Thich Nhat Hanh in Saigon
4 dead in Ohio

Gratitude for my little place
Sleep. DVDs.
Protection from the worst.
Please. Please. Please.

                    Amen

She watched the Elvis movie last night
Her oldest son likes Johnny Cash
President Biden in Europe
On his forehead is the ash

There ain't no good in an evil hearted woman
Never been to Tupelo
She's as sweet as Tupelo, Honey
I think Judi told her so

Tempted to give up on America
Ignorance ain't bliss
3 days in Vienna
At the end of Embers the kiss

                Wish list.

I'm 51 years old
Since 5 a true page turner

Nearly twenty years a teacher
That's how I was an earner

Now I'm unemployed
But inside I'm still a yearner

Please, dear God, O please!
Make me a lovelight learner!

we don’t know who
or even what
we are

I agree
Ms. Ph.D.
though I’m no academic star

it’s like a quest
with no clear end
shines a distant star

we end
and others begin
the near is now the far

if you say there is no mystery
I will not press the point

mental illness is bizarre
I do not myself anoint

but stranger things were happening
which I did not/do not understand

words and names especially
here and in ancestral foreign lands

apophenia or acocalypse perhaps at hand?
          don’t ask me - ask the band.

We die. That may be the meaning of our lives.

We use language. That may be the measure of our lives.

Said Toni Morrison.

Deer in my family's neighborhood
Walking. I Thai wai.
Stillness and attention
Purple gonna go the sky

I am a taxi service
Which is ok by me
1837
3773

I live on Main Street now
Basketball in the park
I have a VisionQuest
I miss my friend Mark

      The Draw of the Dark

Said James Joyce

(gracias, Mr. Markson)

Am I afraid to die?
Yes indeed I am
Gonna watch A Man Called Otto
Once I was a Robinson Ram

Never right without the woman
But I Rome alone
New big green couch
Old little black cell phone

Tolkien was a philologist
That's a word I like
Three great secret things
Novels of John Updike

Some say great talent ripens late
I read the Dao De Ching
Try to know when to stop
Know when to shake that thing

              Tsai. Wong. Ling.

Mary Todd did marry
Lincoln's lover, Lincoln's wife
The House it was divided
Filled with frequent strife
When the conspiracy came to **** him
In a theater named for Ford
He had done his noble duty
Emancipating true justice of the Lord
I visited his boyhood home
I write poems in private pages
He lives on in grateful hearts
He still belongs to the ages
When I ask him what to do
And my mind on him is thinkin'
He counsels, "denounce this hate-filled idiot
Donald Trump, and marry, Todd" - Lincoln

- Todd Witherell

A little Chinese food
Won ton soup, white rice
South Side of Chicago
Oooo dat girl looked nice!

Tai Lung will return
Road of Destiny
Lovely Ms. Susan Meek
Please protect my 3

                   milk tea