the passage of time as illusion
passage a metaphor of confusion

no beginning, nowhere to go
no ending, no harbor to show

the eternal returning right now
all is one, one is all somehow

each moment a spark in the Flame
I too the Hunter of Invisible Game

eternal silence brings thoughts of awe
and, yes, at times I fear it

but the Buddha taught and truly saw
and he lived long quite near it

nothingness is just a word
meant to spark unsettle

emptiness if it is heard
some say sounds like a petal

I fear to die, I treasure life
but when I go, I go down grateful

My moment formed, I know not why
Perhaps the cosmic is the Fateful

Love is joy, so too my boys
In time’s ocean we are swimmin’

Tonight I rest, heart in my chest,
I dream of loving women!

"Hermits in China are a part of society.  A very important part.  They help people.
Hermits in America are misanthropes."

- Bill Porter, aka Red Pine

Except, I would add, for Thomas Merton.
        He knew despairs and hopes.

- Todd Witherell aka me :)

The religiosity is me
But i can let it go

I have atheist friends
Sometimes i worship snow

Ordinary life
Mostly work and money

But not right now for me
Basketball so sunny

I do often think
The world abandoned by God

Students call me Mr. W
My parents called me Todd

              a little odd

Not sure what I am
But I know I'm a little odd

Obsessed with poetry
Also obsessed with God

Grateful for good sleep
Like my mind is humming

Dylan all alone
Singing. Flinging. Strumming.

I hope I go down grateful
Can smile at the end

Prayers for Mark and Alex
Mis amigos y my friends

                  Thank you.

A little basketball
A little rock 'n roll

A little loving life
Midnight's broken toll

The Buddha shows compassion
Even near the grassy knoll

Peaceful sleep forever
Peace the hidden goal

The peace does come
But it comes slow
And after suffering

When it comes
I'm grateful
My cell phone too does ring

Sunshine today
Big blue sky
Green trees, swimming pool

My sons away
My brothers too
I miss Sage Ridge School

                   Reno!

America as the land of lies
it's ignorance I do despise
I ask only to be one who tries
and loves a little before I dies.

                     Amen.

A little prayer for Kanye
Fellow bipolar roller
Keep him humble and hope
Wait out the storm

Miso soup and salad
Arigato, Mother Mary
Me and Susan at JMU
Talking in her dorm

You got a friend in me
Talkin' bout ChiCity
Wendy and it's windy
Feelings flow and warm

Dark, twisted fantasy
Black lace, green lights
2 flights 1 night's delights
La Florida y Form

        Beyond the Norm

2021
Will the virus go?

2021
Can you help us, Joe?

Still I stay inside
Sleep and rest and write

Kamakura Buddha
Vegetarian delight

Silence
Not Sein und Zeit.

A little Spanish, senyorita
Viva Mexico!
Somewhere Across the Border
Where I long to go

2 years of Latin
But I wasn't very good
Rome on my honeymoon
And in my neighborhood

Philo Sophia
Phone calls in the night
Rest. Grateful rest
Sor Juana's mystic flight

                 Well, alright!

Life creates a little while
Death destroys forever

Wherever you go, there you are
Grey day May day weather

Cycling sunlit Stockholm
All of us together

Second girl I ever kissed
In California: her name was Heather.

What's a little weird
Even to me
Is that I did sense this coming

I woke up in 2015
Since then I've been running

I tried to send out warnings
Tried poems in the mail

I was mostly ignored
Then hospitals and jail

I ain't no false prophet
I just said what I said

Now vengeance strikes down
On somebody's head

I live on unknown
But a couple mysteries endure

I will share them if I can
Though when I can't be sure

Poetry is fun
The playfulness is the allure

The Belle of Belfast
And Finnegan’s Wake

Trinity Library
My breath does take

Beckett Bridge
I walk and quake

River Liffey
Lady of the Lake?

Panic attacks, Jack
Hit me like 6 bricks
Come Sail Away!
Sail Away with Styx

Ishmael a survivor
Mysterious Moby ****
God bless Alex
I get so quickly sick

San Patricios Battalion
Fr. Louis, Susan Meek
American Cosmic
My resistance fickle weak

St. Thomas More
Soup: potato leek
Please some good thing
The Sacred: hide and seek

                  Ireland!

Mark Rothko blues and greens
        goin' to Houston to see Jolene
                   and the strangest thing I've ever seen

                                             NASA!

orange sky fading
on Farrington Road

then orange moon above
will the country explode?

ignorance ain't bliss
brain overloads

tick tock tick tock
Ghost of Tom Joad

We of the craft are all mad.

Said Lord Byron.

Might not be understood for a long, long time
If I'm ever understood at all

Dublin, Taipei, Bangkok
We four in Wetheral

Seattle all in cedarsnow
Satellite Beach in the Fall

The sadness and the sickness
But love: love for love all ya'll

                    All.

Light headed in the August heat
Incredibly tired walking home
                   Sleep

Young women playing tennis
He, like my uncle, is named Dennis
We now face an Unconscious menace


                           Stay observant!

The United States
Is filled with hate

It is not holy
It is not great

It's Empire
Will meet its Fate

I walk alone
The hour is late

All dreams come true
And no dreams come true

I became a father thrice
But all of us will die too

Dreams are mystic wishes
Poems are for others to view

Throw my ashes to the fishes
Tell my boys: I love you.

All those solo hours
In the library

All that tragic beauty
In the Old Man and the Sea

All the Buddhist silence
Beyond to be or not to be

All my hopes and fears
For my boys who number 3

All my contradictions
In Silence, In Anxiety

All my life, All my life
In endless search for Thee

Gas station at night
     Eerie fright

Silent unheard word
      The Absurd

Animal Farm.

I can't quite call it faith
I call it sacred silence

Missing, mothers, memories
The only answer to the violence

We disappear forever
Truly, truly scary

But O! the times we were together!
Dear as Mother Mary

The foolish human race
Beauty cedar snow

Falling all around
No one will ever know.

The American Darkness is all around
Ignorance ain't bliss
One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist!

Vienna in the snow
Bangkok in the rain
I'll never ever know
DC metro train

I'd like a different country
Gorillas in the mist
Softfall cedar snow
The plot begins to twist

Not much I can do
Evil on the rise
Sleep perchance to dream
Cut you down to size

                I tries.

Goes the proverb.

Only Silence is the Way I pray
Only wish I could make today
                   stay

Said my teacher, Fr. Andrew Greeley.
(may his memory be a blessing)

Said my teacher
Father Andrew Greeley
(of blessed memory)

A philosopher is not a great thinker
But rather someone who loves Sophia

When you see her in the moonlight
You say, I truly see ya

And yes, Lady Wisdom
I would like to be ya

Love me in the nightime
I'll love you Alleleeya!

The godawful ugliness
Of so many American towns
Grey day blues
Not a single beautiful building in sight

Basketball to me is American hope
Canadian invention
Eurostep
We should have eloped

I also like Asian food
Kim Chi
Summer rolls
miso soup

Ja Morant on the break
Jokic with the lob
One hand, with authority
Alley Oop Oop Oop, Oop Oop!

The Empire of Liberty
From foolish Thomas J.

Which leads right to George W.
And his murderous way

America is soaked in blood
I say caloh! callay!

Beware that Jabberwock, my son
Live to fight another day

The Empire of Liberty also falls
They all do I must say

the Absurd at JMU
the Absurd Albert Camus
but ah! those French Cathedrals
and I don't even parlez vous

the modern world has freedom
freedom, it is true
393 million guns
in America (red vs. blue)


what would Plato do?

Today I am an astronaut
I sail among the stars
I boldly go, discoveries show
This love that we call ours

Tonight the Eve is hallowed
Perhaps the Dead return?
Porous becomes the boundary
So the living now can learn

                                      How I yearn!

All Hallow's Eve
I'm not feeling very holy
Halloween Head
Tired, guacamole

Might sleep again
Might write, might lay in bed
Do what I can
Not what she said

             Street Cred

Last Halloween in Richmond
We went visiting Mr. Poe

Too late for summer's heat
Too early for winter's snow

I saw no bust of Pallas
Or at least they didn't show it

Just a bust with bleak black roses
Of the orphaned, lonely poe-t

I like him because he's honest
A tortured soul needs savin'

I too loved and lost a Lenore
Nevermore to know this Raven!

The quaint and curious volume
Is one I think I know

Last Halloween in Richmond
We went visiting Mr. Poe

I saw no bust of Pallas
Or at least they didn't show it

Just a bust with bleak black roses
Of the orphaned lonely Poe-t

I like him because he's honest
A tortured soul needs savin'

I too loved and lost a Lenore
Nevermore to know this Raven!

Last Halloween in Richmond
We went visiting Mr. Poe

Just a little museum
No El Dorado

I saw no bust of Pallas
Or at least they didn't show it

Just a bust with bleak black roses
Of the orphaned lonely Poe-t

I like him because he's honest
A tortured soul needs savin'

I too loved and lost a Lenore
Nevermore to know this Raven!

Last Halloween in Richmond
We went visiting Mr. Poe
Too late for school's beginning
Too early for the snow

I saw no bust of Pallas
Or at least they didn't show it
Just a bust with bleak black roses
Of the orphaned, lonely Poe-t

I like him because he's honest
A tortured soul needs savin'
I too loved and lost a Lenore
Nevermore to know this Raven!

The quaint and curious volume
Is one I think I know

One Halloween in Richmond
We went visiting Mr. Poe

I saw no bust of Pallas
Or at least they didn't show it

Just a bust with bleak black roses
Of the orphaned, lonely Poe-t

I like him because he's honest
A tortured soul needs savin'

I too loved and lost a Lenore
Nevermore to know this Raven!

The quaint and curious volume
Is one I think I know

Last Halloween in Richmond
We went visiting Mr. Poe

I saw no bust of Pallas
Or at least they didn't show it

Just a bust with bleak black roses
Of the orphaned lonely Poe-t

I like him because he's honest
A tortured soul needs savin'

I too loved and lost a Lenore
Nevermore to know this Raven!

autumn chill in the night air
          basketball alone for hours and hours
                              Catteleya flowers