I have a fear of being forgotten, dear reader
Forgotten for forever
8th grade dance
Sacramento Heather

God is Unknowable
We die and don't discover
Time tick tocks
I wanna be your lover

Bangkok was bustling
Motorcycle taxis in the rain
Buddhadasa meditates
Silent in the strain

I pray as I drive
Keep her calm collected
Happy to be alive
Quietly connected

                    Slowly ...

To the wise life is a dream
Death is waking up
Sacrifice to Asclepius
Drink that chalice cup

I was in Japan once
Amazed for 2 straight weeks
Never even kissed her
But I love Susan Meek

It's a horror story world
Pain and misery
But at least there is basketball
I still can shoot a 3

                    Destiny?

On the campus today
Sunshine, beauty blue

El autobus
Donde esta are you?

Belltower tolls
Know what i will do

Perpetual persistence
Plato, parlez vous?

Woke up this mornin' early
Dreamin' of Jimmy Joyce

Aretha Franklin on Facebook
Power in her voice!

Sometimes we are led
Do we have a choice?

The Beloved Community
California's Josiah Royce

Santa Rosa y Sacramento
     We quietly rejoice.

I wanna do something for the animals
Something outta this world
Something freaky strange
Something womangirl

Zephyr and Arapahoe
Quayzar at the Lake
Black birds soar above me
The Tyger of William Blake

Deer on my drive home
Huskies on my walk
Chapel of the Cross
At Timeout we talk

               Eagles!

So comes snow after fire
Even dragons have their end
Suffering is caused by desire
Fairy folk my friend

Snowfall shunyata
The Buddha in Kamakura
Shiva does his dance
The devas and the asuras

Honeymoon in France
Jazz in New Orleans
We read the Giver in Taipei
I give Tolkien to the tweens

I wish to live in libraries
Silent, meditative
Don't remember much Latin
But I know one case is dative

Little Italy in Boston
Vegetarian lasagna tonight alone
Friar Thomas D'aquino
All roads lead to Rome

               Ave Maria...

not just not perfect
but genuinely tried and troubled

Fate in the old paintings
bursts the beauty bubble

I live in a late Empire
the culture now quite rubbled

despite my whitening beard
time to grow as does my stubble

The Spirit of Exclusion and Terror
        American Empire is in Error
              kindness ever rarer ...


                     Deliverance!

Meant to be in Dublin
No coincidence in Virginia
Much that lives inside of me
You too can find within ya

But now just dailiness
I ride el autobus
Hola to my neighbors
Snake eyes and a deuce

            Break loose?

as Alex acknowledged - the terror of death
Dia de los Muertos y Buddha breath
Hope against hope, Quixoticeth

Deer again today
But tonight a first: one small owl

I wear my Yoda shirt
Monks they wear a cowl

Bobcat swampy forest
The run. The leap. The growl.

When you're in the ring
Don't throw in the towel

Athena. Hedwig. Minerva.

Me: Your dog is beautiful. Where did you get it?

Her: From a shelter. She rescued me.

The Universities promise
More than they can deliver
Cliff Pickover
In ecstasy shiver

Southern California
Only twice
Oceanside
Didn't get the job

American nice
Destroys Vietnam
Destroys Iraq
Without a trickle or sob

But there is nowhere to go
So
Green Arrow
Put one in your quiver

          Sic Semper Tyrannis

ordinary, boring, secular life
     past history, a little mystery, much strife
          soul singing strong Cuts Like a Knife

he ends by saying it feels so right,
but I wonder if he wonders
what might have been
if, instead of letting go,
she kept holding on, and became his wife?

American President - tantrum behaving
his deluded supporters - not worth saving
    into the Abyss - Fox News raving ...

               inanity become insanity
            as hideous as Sean Hannity.

the Unknowable Other - God
         my unknowable self - Todd
              lately my lonesome life - odd ...

Stockholm to Helsinki
Boat in Baltic blue

Just a few hours
Karaoke for a few

I like Northerness
I like sunlight too

Skylit Purple Rain
Maybe 2022?

tired, unsure of what to do
     the President hates; his minions too
           walls with wars obscure the view

but ah! secret Muses, women to who
      
             confidentially, I said, “I love you.”

Sins and faults and mistakes
Yes, I surely have them

Plus anxiety
It pins me to the floor

I'm alone, yet not alone
Help from my dad

Help from friends and family
I seek the open door

    Verona not Elsinore

In America the Ignorant
I ride the Downbound Train
Carolinian
But I can't explain

I'd like to see Berlin
Or maybe Heidelberg
Eckhart Harvey Dent
I read the German word

               Zeitgeist
              Theonerd

Xanthippe was a shrew
So was Mary Todd
Feminine insane
Have trod, have trod, have trod

Pythagoras he loved numbers
137. 72.
Vincent's eyes were green
Susan Meek's are blue

               Pondicherry Zoo

a little hope is all there is
so it will have to be enough
According to Father Greeley
Jesus wasn't humble; he was tough

Mario Cuomo, June 15
Augustine's Eastern feast
Become what you receive
Said the young Franciscan priest

Kyoto train station
Dear Nara deer
Invisible threads connect
Do you think she can hear?

The Eagle and the Hawk
Rocky Mountain High
Some good thing to do
Before I too say goodbye

            something Thai

My attraction to religion
Still puzzling to me
Even now
Even at 53

Is it just fear of death?
What are these coincidences?
Shamanic initiation?
Disappear forever?

Mesmerized by the Dark Knight
The sadness comes out of nowhere
She had such beautiful hair
The long road of despair

The Greeks are True Greatness
But I wanna go to Istanbul
Heidelberg
Maybe Shenzhen

           What might have been!

No one at all important
Which is fine by me
Got some books to read
In 2023

Got some movies to watch
Got some vinyl to play
I am a taxi service
Q callooh! callay!

The sun breaks through my window
She begins to sway
Tell her I wish her the best
Sweet William on his deathbed lay

                    Mercy. Mercy.
                           I pray.

SkyZone joint jumpin’
     young sons sung
           Trappist-1!

I couldn't do press conferences
Or television cameras
Or literary festivals
Or keynote speakers

But I could do libraries
Air Force bases
Episcopalian church prayer services
Ferry boats. Tim Meeker.

Invisible threads  Si.
Some of the Chinese
And Swedish
And Israeli. Tel Aviv.

Sacramento. Satellite Beach.
Mark and DeeAnn
Judi and Allison
Mike and Steve

               Retrieve!

I'm educated
But not enough

Father Greeley believed Jesus was not humble.
He was tough.

Talkin' Chi Town
Call my bluff

American philosophy
Mostly fluff

But American music
The Right Stuff!

Dr. Thomas was very caring
Very southern
Very dedicated
And very funny

Father Greeley was very passionate
Very Chicago
Very combative
And very unique

I am very lonely
Very sad
Very solitary
And in need of Susan Meek

But, alas, I'm 53 and geek.  :)

Life is a kind of torment
Rarely, rarely at ease
Please for my sons
Happiness, hope


      Prayers for the Pope

Shamanism, slowly go
Seattle rain, Reno snow
No one on Earth
Will ever know

                 Eliade!

Halloween Head in Dublin
        Singing Guthrie in times quite troublin'
                                could my ancestors be bubblin'?

                               Brown Savages.

I'm nobody's hero
Can barely take care of myself
Bipolar is my burden
Legolas the Elf

I like sci-fi movies
I like middle school books
Susan Darlene Meek
Thai curry from Thai cooks

I'm truly unimportant
Kamakura snow
Aye! Aye! Aye!
Yoko yo yo yo yo

                 On we go ....

today again a Celtic story
       Cambridge gave me Taipei glory
                William James and his family before me …

                                         the multiverse

I read some theology
Even when I don't believe in God
Astrobiology?
Yo soy solo Todd

Cistercian is a cool word
So is exomoons
In her hair a Scarlet Ribbon
In our kitchen Flaming June

I'm watching War of the Worlds
Got my mind on my friend Mark
Seattle goes grey green
Sacramento sparks

Poetry to provoke
Evoke and wend like water
Colorado Rockies
Silently I sought her

Denver to San Francisco
San Francisco to Monterrey
Carolina Inn
The Fire with which we play

                my my xie xie

The bipolar brings grandiosity
So step by slowly step
Long term game
Patience.

Basketball is hope for me
Jokic might get a ring
I got the Denver thing
Asians.

Ordinary is boring
I am boring myself
Legolas the Elf
Aging.

Arrival got my attention
Dr. Banks, xie xie thanks
China. China.
Engaging.

            2072

dead level of the mass
idiot imbecility indeed
demagoguery of harm and hurt

courage, care, and cunning
to the Divine Inert!

mature poets steal
immature poets borrow

yesterday silent in church
silent again tomorrow

life itself as suffering
this lonely Man of Sorrows

                            eyes cast down
                           I look all around
                                    Brown

He says the path to the universal
Is through the particular
I've moved very often
My particularities change

And resurface in my memories
Boston Strong!
Icy Charles River
Larry Bird more than Danny Ainge

Hints of Shiva
Women double themselves for Krishna
Yo Boonsboro!
People are strange

I share my dream with a stranger
London bus
I try to trust
Samantha James

             Secret Flames!

my hopes might hide in ignorance
ignorance and surprise

the ignorance Socratic
the kind that’s actually wise

surprise almost suspicion
something else perhaps the case

unknown, now undiscovered,
in this Land of Waste

de docta ignorantia
and on desperation too

what happens when the Unknown Land
appears a bit to view?

Melchior, Gaspar, Balthazar
         kiss at the end
             Embers

Thankful for the doctors
I hope they see me through

St. Augustine in Ostia
Ever ancient, Ever new

Hakeem the Dream spun
Michael Jordan flew

Reno white in snow
Carolina blue

            Be true.

I studied and still study philosophy
But I would not call myself a philosopher
That, to me, is an honorific
Plato, yes. Richard Rorty, no.

Philosophy has to last
Again - the test of time.
Life is Pain, Highness.
In Charlotte, Dublin, Vienna, Kyoto

Dr. Wiles was my first philosophy teacher
JMU, 1987
Oh, those pre-Socratics!
My son likes Stranger Things' 11

Wisdom is a Woman
Forever just out of reach
Susan and I in the Carolina Inn
Wendy and I at the beach

Charlotte is where I had my dream
Sophia is in Tokyo
Talk with her in the bar one night
Satori ah! pro Bono

                 yo no se

                     slow ...

The bad boy with the good heart
Like the Rolling Stones
Each day I grow older
Sadness all my own

2072
I hope my sons all still alive
Gonna need duty
Love alone will not survive

Maybe God is Silence
Never intervenes
Deus Otiosus
Rothko blue and green

San Francisco Zen
I like miso soup
Ja Morant on the break
Here comes the Alley Ooop

            Alley Ooop Ooop
                       Ooop

                 Ooop Ooop

The clouds were amazing
On my reluctant drive back home

It's the transience that gets me
Stately pleasure dome

Never been to Xanadu
Have been to Hong Kong

Dion and the Belmonts
Oh those 50s songs!

          lonely long

but maybe I have seen Beyond
Obie Dziedzic photo is for real

have to trust my vision
and the insights I can feel

back to meatless meanderings
vegetarian again my meals

allusions and quotations
are two ways that poets steal

I’d like to write a storysong
that helps the commonweal

David Markson touched me deeply
his genre-breaking zeal

I stand and stare in the mirror
and alone in darkness kneel

Then I wager with Pascal
play the hand She deals

                            Hit me!

I hope I can smile at it when it comes.

I wrote her when I was manic
Probably not so smart

The sadness, then the panic
The postcards, stamps, and art

I like French cathedrals
Not Napolean Blown Apart

Every day a failure
Every day a brand new start

                    37.