Leonard Cohen saw the Future
Maybe I did too
Little prayer for Taipei
Carolina blue

Vegetarian tacos tonight
Edamame for my son
Rieko held him newborn
At Taipei 101

Sometimes profane the sacred
Sometimes revere and cherish
I do pray to the statues
But do not attend the parish

My ordinary life
Boring, but gratitude
My joy in my three sons
In my solitude

                     3!

when the horror hits me hard
I have to take it slow

breathe in and then breathe out
find a kinder place to go

Time is still the Cross
yet oh! an ocean that does flow

I swim again towards shore
will she ever truly know?

His bracelet says God's got this
So I try to trust
Courage in the fear
Courage for all of us

Keep my boys dear
Blue black blue big bus
Cordelia not King Lear
Empty Diamond dust

           Walking

I have religious obsessions
Very, very American
Tryin' to break free
Ain't doin' too well

Have not been to Mexico yet
Have been to Nara
Wedding in Tokyo
And Tel Aviv, Israel

My children not baptized
Nietzsche says God died
I liked Malahide
Ain't no tongue can tell

Quiet little libraries
USPS
Annihilation my best guess
But with the Rebel Yell

          Ay! Ay! Ay!

First they came for the Salvadorans
But I wasn't a Salvadoran, so I didn't say anything

Then they came for the Hondurans
But I wasn't a Honduran, so I didn't say anything

Then they came for the Guatemalans
But I wasn't a Guatemalan, so I didn't say anything

Then they came for the Mexicans
But I wasn't a Mexican, so I didn't say anything

Then they came for the Muslims
But I wasn't a Muslim, so I didn't say anything

Then they came ...
But ...

the predatory human animal
destroys the world in all its wonder

the greed indeed proceeds
they call it progress as they plunder

a million other species to go extinct
onward the companies thunder

only the Dead know the end of this war
as the globe itself goes under

If death indeed closes all
Mr. Tennyson

I bow to sacred deer
And not to venison

The mystery of life
The Implacable Wall of Death

Reverence despite strife
Gratitude for each breath

Meaningless together
Better than meaningless alone

I've been Hitch Hikin'
I am a Rolling Stone

95 North
Richmond twilight zone

The comfort of their voices
My sons on my cell phone

If God
Then Unknown

             Zero at the Bone

despair is in the air
I too despair, yet still I care
high water risin’ everywhere
if I go down, do and dare
sing your song, in sunshine stare
make much music, ride that mare
travel on - awake, alive, aware

chrysanthemum stamps
rain drops

satori time
time stops

Queen Charlotte
mind hops

411 West
Rothko ops

Yes, Eric Alterman.

Patience please
Thank you, Katie
Myrtle Beach
1980

       slowly

waterpark joys
      three growing boys
              wavepool's laughing noise!

I have an anxiety disorder
Me too, she said
Me laying there in pain
In the hospital bed

Thank you, Life, for my sons
Help me fight the Nameless Dread
Slowly guacamole
Lotta love before I'm dead

for both humility and hunger
       honesty and wonder
                 dailiness

Stockholm, Dublin, Bangkok, Taipei
         Tak, Thanks a Million
        Krop Kun Kop, Xie Xie

       Not for me foreign capitals
    Just story stops along the Way

Up at night and writing
What else can I do?
She's a schizophrenic
Pondicherry Zoo

Father Greeley was a fighter
Chicago's Irish eyes
Told the truth about Iraq
George W. Lies

I've been to Arizona
Rode the Tucson Train
Somewhere Across the Border
Is the Purple Rain

She's also colossally selfish
Now I'm 55
Not doing very well
But grateful to be alive

                    I've ...

solidarity with my little town
not a man of much renown

              goin' down

Reiko in Staunton
     us in Nara

Deer park dear
     sayonara

cherry blossom beauty
      lovely Lara

snow falling on cedars
  dispelling Mara

Said Malcolm X.

Desperate for attention at times
Desperate desperately
One little like
Someone notices me!

Fatherhood is joy
I pray I go down gratefully
1969
3033

                Toledo? Si.

standing in the surf, looking and wishing
      the boys at play, me I’m missing
        pounding waves, sunlight kissing ...

                           Time.

No great philosopher
Now not even a job
Nervous, nervous energy
Ja Morant a lob

53 and falling
Drift like wood on water
Ukrainian invasion
Russia attempts a slaughter

One man boldly leads
One man he resists!
Tired in America
Lemonade and pretzel twists

Vegetarian tacos
Gracias, senorita
Moby **** in Fairfax
Hummus, quiet, pita

           Bulkington!

Each night I prepare for eternal sleep
Baby I do dream

Her father is an Episcopal priest
I miss my basketball team

I will be forgotten
But I hope remembered by God

I'm not Johnny Rotten
Just shy and geeky Todd

          and a little odd

Ordinary life
Ordinary death
No need for centipede
No need for crystal ****

Life goes on until it doesn't
Kamakura snow
Blazing bullet train
Yoko yo yo yo yo!

                 On we go...

Just a little poem
Grey and rainy day
Nothin to believe in
Nothin' but xie xie

    yea verily. Yea.

Robert Johnson to Bob
        Poetic vocation, not a job
                immature poets imitate
                                 mature poets rob

           Against the masters, for the mob.

Just a little diary
Not great timeless art
I like Dash Incredible
More than Napoleon Blown Apart

Satellite Beach, Florida
Not much goin' on
San Francisco Zen
Quiet Gamla Stan

I've traveled a bit, am lonely
Our politics is the Abyss
Gratitude for waitresses
Embers ending kiss

               San Diego!

creating then watching then waiting
              maze running and meditating
               silent, small, distressed, in need
                  mystical, musical, mustard seed.

If you don't read the papers
You'll be uninformed
If you do read the papers
You'll be misinformed

                Forewarned.

my country went insane
I wrote 4000 poems

I wander in solo silence
who will ever know ‘em?

a time of genuine danger
      they try to turn away the stranger
                and forget the mystical manger

Can they be helped by Hermione Granger?

the medicine is the miracle
so may I stay true and calm

communication  is the key
therapy is Gilead's balm

hurricane a-comin'
we prepare for wind and storm

alone in the quiet bath
her voice like water warm

encounters, strangers, gifts that come
I pay it forward, but who’s it from?
           credo quia absurdum

Yes, at times, suspicious
Hatred’s in the air

Language has been debased
The President does not care

Authoritarians rule
By launching hatewords with despair

Threats, commands, rage rants
Try to break you down with fear

To fight back takes real thought
When, and how, and where

Poems, songs, and stories
Make them and then do dare!

.......,.….Music at GrannyMurray's...........
The Belle of Belfast and Finnegan's Wake
                   I hope they are proud
                         of me as such ….

                      ancestral awareness?
                         a timeless touch?

when younger, only happiness
when older, only peace

death is the Destroyer
but perhaps also sweet release

I’ve known mine own obsessions
Forms from Ancient Greece

The poems came with madness
Brought conflict with the police

Solitude and lifelong sadness
alone the Unknowns increase

Rothko blue and green
    Miyazaki blue sky

               Hope.

thinking of Venice and Istanbul
   awake in the night, belly empty not full
                 ancientness, an Unamerican pull


                        de profundis!

Calyx truck and ancient things
    Movie actors, magic rings
    Coincidence evinces, sings ...

    attentively, I breath and bring

                 Hiddenness!

The zoologist studies the elephant
As I study myself

I'm trying to learn locations
Books upon my shelf

I loved Will Ferrell
In Stranger Than Fiction and in Elf

I'm suffering tonight
But, dear reader, I wish you health

                      And stealth.

I'm gonna leave it behind when I die
Will it be discovered?
I can never know
Tienmu. Heavenly Mother.

Kamakura snow
The Buddha silently sits
2nd Noble Truth
Mel, kiss my grits! :)

My boys play video games
Q plays Destiny 2
10 minutes of soccer
Sky still beauty blue

Georgetown all gone grey
I like it yes I do
Jesuits join Blue Jays
Lonergan for few

           137732

Unable to be happy
Hot and sticky sweat
Some cannot remember
I cannot forget

54 years old
Falling, falling, falling
River Eden, Wetheral
Hearing London Calling

Tired, solo sadness
Still USPS
When I disappear
Near her wedding dress

                Guess.

living with the sadness
        both goodness and badness
                        March, Madness!

awakening in the quiet night
         soon to work, family fights
              I yearn the years, imagine flight ...

                                 long time passing.

Time to debunk myself
Nought but an aging fool

I miss Seattle ferry boats
I miss Sage Ridge School

My children at the waterpark
Me alone and sad

All I really want to be
Is a loving dad

             Sweet Sir Galahad

can’t quite believe in life after death
though God knows how I’ve tried

confessed my sins, even publicly
told the truth and have not lied

it’s the religious music that touches me
deep and strong and wide

Dylan, Springsteen, Johnny Cash
Marvin Gaye in my inside

the self so often a prison
music jailbreak pride

sometimes I’d like to fly away
to where my beloved Dead do hide

don’t know if we’ll ever meet again
a couple curiosities came coincide

but I’ve lived, loved, sinned, fought
and when they left this world how I cried.