Thus it came to pass
    Nothing truly lasts
       Westminster Abbey Mass...


                                 despite my lifelong fear
                                         I still revere
                                          Stratford’s
                                        Shakespeare.

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.

Which Richard Rodriguez says
He heard chanted on schoolyards
As a child in Sacramento.

grey skies, three tries
         more than they realize
               hidden Hope, despair’s disguise

                               the future!

It’s not brilliant
but it’s mine

I too seek
divine design

Asbury Park
friendly find

She’s the One
in my mind.

                             Hey, hey, hey
                              Cristo Rey!

Religion is like playing with Fire
One man come and go

Suffering is caused by desire
Wanna play with Fire, Scarecrow?

Bruce Springsteen's music
Concert in Detroit
All the softfall snow
Somewhere Across the Border

55 and falling
Sinful proclivities
American despair
Please, baby, please

Gratitude for my sons
Try to be a good dad
Un pequito fun
Sweet Sir Galahad

Time is the Cross
Watch that river run
The Buddha sits in silence
Susan. La Florida.

                     Sun!

Un Escritor, Un Escritor
Richard in Mexico City
Me in Gamla Stan
Where the women are so pretty

Marguerite Porete
Definitely not a fake
Maybe she will let ...
Nothin' but love to make

Un Escritor, Un Escritor
Jeovanni from Honduras
David from El Salvador
Green lights still allure us

Mandy is my bartender
Dino plays Brandy
European licorice
Carmel. Monterrey. Gandhi.

                    Mohandas!

Way out in the wilderness
A cold coyote calls
Hablo un pequito Espanyol
All Walls Fall

I was given madness
Madness was given me
2037
3033

In my solitude
Memories of She
In my solitude
Still xie xie ni

           T

antennae of the race
       her beautiful hair and face
                        the poetry of place ...


                transience. truth.
                      I embrace.

childhood memories, Ohio skies
  green the trees, blue her eyes
                fireflies!

I am not this body
Take it! Take it! I say

Ishmael is a wonder
To an Unknowable God I pray

Your soul is your creativity, she said
So I try now to let it play

I myself am straight
But I love so many writers who are gay

Oh! the Atlantic near St. Augustine
The Pacific at San Francisco Bay

Such fragile magic in marriage
It so easily slips away

This headache has laid me low
Lying in bed the entire day

Will I stop resisting Trump?
No, nay, never - Nay!

I love poetry and music
The sounds shamanic wisdom Way

I do hope a species stands beyond
Yes, Emily - gratefully this May.

So I was just a bit manic
And I think I scared her away
Let me wait awhile
Live to text another day

Tecumseh in Ohio
And the Rock Hall of Fame
Carolina Inn
She hollers out my name

Ludwig Wittgenstein
Philosophy as language game
Vienna waits for you
Judi, not Jesse James

Georgia on my mind
Basketball to play
Cocoa Tigers delight her
I still hit the Tre

                Fey

I wish I wasn't bipolar
Ordinary life
Ordinary swimming pool
Ordinary wife

I like sci-fi movies
Oxford. Dublin too.
Everlasting sleep
Pondicherry Zoo

     Susan. Not Sue.

Fantasy is reality
From a different point of view

When they say, It doesn’t exist
I strive still to be true

Psychosis is osmosis
The real world fades from view

The Unknown is what they fear
Do you fear it too?

               Golden heart turns Blue
                 We are One, not-two
                       Exoplanets, Q!

Before the war near Tigris and Euphrates
   Before I read of Ishmael and his matees
     Before my friends wed their ladies:


She and I in class, at movies, dances, the beach, her house, my house, the streets, my car...

                Oh, those long lost 80s!

Shayne on Franklin Street
She and he and they
I listen very carefully
Thank you, Shayne. Xie Xie.

Jay and I play basketball
I ride the free blue bus
Tunnel of Love. Lights go out.
Just the 3 of us.

March Madness begins
Frederick for my foray
Richard Parker, Sally Hemings
St. John. That's amore!

Granny Murray's pub
Man tells me cheers
I still press ahead
Despite my sins and fears

                 Hears?

I enjoyed teaching students
Especially novels and poetry

Edgar Allan Poe
Dearest Emily

I like Things Not Seen
I wait patiently

Truly, I'm alone now
Who will wait for me?

According to Elie Wiesel

how sweet the word rest
sleeping and dreams abreast
peace and care confess ...

                       Undisturbed.

Socrates was physically ugly
But he had logos in his soul
Twisted Sister on my stereo
A little Rock N' Roll

We're not gonna take it
Gonna Overthrow
Chinese scholar's garden
Portland, progress, Poe

2/3s of Springsteen's fans
Europe, not the USA
Stockholm in the summer
Bangkok y Taipei

Mr. David Markson
Gonna do you right
Guanajuato, Mexico
The Guardian in the Night

                   Warning!

John Denver was a nature mystic
Rocky Mountain High
I like the misty mountains
Don't like to say goodbye

Encounters with Chinese hermits
On a dragon Lao Tzu did fly
Silence. Exoplanets.
Still I try to try

Both patient and a patient
I listen more than speak

The doctors say bipolar
Though labels I find weak

I truly love my wife
But my Muse is Susan Meek

Met her when I was 15
Her beauty nearing peak

My relationships with women
Anguished (I’m both athlete and geek)

And God for me is Female
She’s the One I seek!

Thai food today
My son, he does drive
Highway to Hell
Feeling 55

Grateful for small victories
Suffering, but still alive
Keep him moving ahead
Quietly to thrive

                      Amen.

breath to air to keep
   eternity asleep
no pain, no joy, no more
      tears to weep.

My arm hurts
I can't relax
Diabetes
Anxiety attacks

George W.
Destroyed Iraq
ACDC
Back in Black

       Night.

she gave me a dollar so I could get a drink
and told me to pay it forward

her generosity makes me think
the kindness calls me toward

I liked her bumperstickers
against Trump and creationists

I’ll do my best to follow her bless
against indifference we both resist!

Troubled, a little bit off
Ill at ease
Unwell

             Todd Witherell

The sadsack Catholic Church
Priestly pedophiles
Excluding women
Both ******* and homophobic
The Knights of Columbus
Cristobal Colon-izer
A (possibly Jewish) sadist
Who did not discover America
Ruled his colony as a tyrant
Was gold obsessed
Had women *****, their tongues cut out
Paraded naked in public
And inaugurated genocide
The slave trade, a legacy of Hate.

             Crush the Infamous thing!

the silent music takes
      is this life a vast mistake?
                still I love the beauty lake ...


                    kayaking with my sons.

Hope and despair are partners
Living side by side
One reaches far for future
One sinks suicide
I have both within me
Like humility and pride
Back and forth, up and down
Been a bit of a wild ride
Yes indeed I've tried
Cannot be denied


George W. Lied.

This is a mean old world
Try and live in all by yo self
Need some help from Gandalf
And from Legolas the Elf

In my solitude
Movies and my bookshelf
Can't be with the one I really love
She's out ballin' someone else

The Transition to Sameness
Means psychiatrists make a lotta money
I like Billy Crystal
Steve Martin still is still is funny

So is Kate McKinnon
Saw her on SNL
Fear at times of phoning
Fear of Eternal Hell

I like Life of Pi
It is the better story
Wonder where I'll die?
This train Bound for Glory

                 Charlotte!

Alas, across a lot of the American scene
               Karma now Queen
          Can you see what I mean?
                             2019

It goes on until it doesn't
Then silence gone eternal
Would have liked to get her pregnant
Mystery maternal

Poetry is different
Japanese haiku
Train from Tokyo
Rain from sky of blue

             Never knew.

I told her I missed her
In that I spoke the truth
La Florida the Land of Flowers
Long lost youth

Lonely as I age
Slowly. Patience. Please.
Time tick tocks
Can't make it freeze

               long disease

Leonard Cohen in London
          Dylan in D.C.
           indeed, I see
               mystery

Twilight sky goes blueyellowwhite
          Calyx and I to the library
                              math

working and clerking with a biologist
the mystery history of life

patterns and information
forming amidst all strife

a double helix magnetism
80 million light years long

deep in the Milky Way
attracting my little song

Nature is indeed a stranger
we welcome but do not know

she hides a Secret Garden
only those she loves she shows

what she does behind closed doors
when she lets her hair hang down

The light from stars illumine
Darkness on the Edge of Town

Not understood till later
If ever understood at all
mist in the lonely mountains

        River Eden, Wetheral
                 (hey y'all)

Spent most of my life in the USA
But I prefer Europe 'tis true
Kamakura Buddha
2132

Would like to see Heidelberg
Would like to sleep in peace
The beauty of the Blue Mosque
Torment of Ancient Greece

53 and falling
Awake in the Night
Rothko blue and green
Holderlin, not Sein und Zeit

             My Mr. Spock kite

allusions to fight illusions
delusions to fight confusions

against despair and sadness
a little mystic madness

tension, energy, balance
hidden vision talents

the Darkness and the Light
May the Force be with you - Good Night.

America magazine
American Cosmic

I post and send
But what’s my object?

To change the world?
To find a friend?

To leave a trace
Before my end?

The Great Unknown
Is the truth pretend?

just language games, can’t quite reach
  behold her beauty, moonlight beach
       to speak of books - why I teach
                every person a world
                  every one and each.

Cherry blossoms in our frontyard
                Her tulips too
                         petals

The predatory terror in the natural world
          Prayers to and for the animals
                            Ravens!

Taxi twilight from 101
     Yangmingshan,  Din Tai Fung
               gracefully, my newborn son

The razor's edge is difficult to pass over
Thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard

I told her the truth, the whole truth
About that time in my front yard

In London I heard Mozart
In Staunton I saw the Bard

In South Riding, my students from India
At Mox in Seattle, Magic the Gathering cards

against the nations
  oceans, locations
       Wayfaring