Shakespeare in the Staunton night
I-81 in snow

The Tempest on the stage
Rene Thornton years ago

The professor lived in Italy
A time or two you know

Als Ick Kan gentleman
Ay yay yay yay yo!

Shakespeare in Staunton
A wonder to behold

Music in the night
The gift a story told

Staunton in the snow
Wondrous strange I listen true

Hey now Prospero!
I know the Tempest too

Rene Thorton, one for you.

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


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

I'd like to get to Staunton again
See Shakespeare played

The language is the wonder
And the music that is made

Snowfall comes to Staunton
Sleepy Southern town

I met Rene Thornton once
No one else around

I was an English teacher
Tried to do my best

Shakespeare and Emily
Ah! I must confess

Solitude is lonely
But solitude can bless

I pray for those in solitude
Then you do the rest.

Takin' on
The Roman Catholic Church
Badass!

But needing the kindly
And the wise priests
At Mass

Als Ick Kan
In the Staunton snow

Als Ick Kan
Look out below!

Als Ick Kan
To know is
Not to know

I care not for canonical poets
You can have the cannons
You can have the wars
But please do not abandon
Emily or William Blake
Or the Bard in Staunton at night
I've know rivers
Mist and snow alight

             Well, alright!

All these, all these poems
Because I ain't got you
Vincent's eyes were green
The Baltic Sea is blue

Rounded by a sleep
Forgetting but not forgotten
Staunton aglow in snow
Neil Young's Johnny Rotten

Venice, Verona, Rome
His love for Italy
McCartney in Baltimore
Cell phones. Let it Be.

           Silent Plea

The morning of my birthday
Hello, 52
Never been back to Knoxville
No Porsche in my front yard

Life is suffering
This the Buddha knew
I rode the downbound train
Times indeed got hard

Gonna write today
Postcards in the mail
Find my superpower
Truly, no canard

2037
Then grey and misty nights
Time is like an ocean
Long live the Bard!

Macbeth says
A tale told by an idiot

But in Shakespeare's epitaph
To Jesus he prayed

I too fear
Fear the meaningless strife

But I hear the silence
And saw Cordelia played

With me Staunton stayed.

it's meaningless, meaningless
but still we are alive

we breathe, we move, we listen
we struggle to survive

they got Charles Darwin
trapped out on Highway 5

but I'm on Highway 81
to exit 222 I do drive.

I ride the synchronicities
They strangely come and go
Rest from the anxieties
Staunton aglow in snow

Walk the way of dailiness
Movies, music, books
Buddhamind in Bangkok
Q and I tuk tuks

Scholem's astral body
Kabbalists in Spain
Sandor Marai in Budapest
Stephen King in Maine

Me in Mary's land
But lookin' way down south
My hands upon her hair
My words within her mouth

            Dixie Chicks!

Another Messiah in Shakespeare’s person
      Melville against Michael Gerson
              NASA now Universin’ ...


          brave new worlds rearrange
                 Wondrous Strange!

roller coaster ride
but roller coasters are fun

she doesn't know quite how yet
but truly, Rey's the One!

to overcome my weaknesses
and do what must be done

                                       loyal to friends
                                 and endure till the end

I would like to be important
To the English language
I was once an English teacher
Fairfax. Reno. Taipei.

Oxford at twilight
Dublin bus
Gamla Stan
San Francisco. xie xie

Long live Lina and Doon!
Egress
Awakening
Californ I A

Birdsong
Whalesong
Ping Pong
Shakespeare play

                   Cordelia!

In Staunton - Romeo
Me quiet, lights aglow
Juliet, does she know?
Eros and Thanos - one in woe

but her love is true (like Staunton snow).

Reiko in Staunton
     us in Nara

Deer park dear
     sayonara

cherry blossom beauty
      lovely Lara

snow falling on cedars
  dispelling Mara

In Staunton - growth
Poetic oath
To sing from the heart
Als Ick Kan
(the best I can do)
By my troth!

Romeo and Juliet
Dead and piled together

The *** drive is the death drive
Thus was it ever

The powerful play goes on
All the world's a stage

Solitude and loneliness
Sadness as I age

Ishmael
Turn the Page.

I read books for 40 years
Then it just poured out

I am genuinely religious
But not orthodox devout

The poems fly like Pegasus
But I now only walk

Humans are the language animal
See that Shakespeare talk!

Providence is ambiguous
The Divine remains Unknown

I travel states contiguous
She wakes within the Twilight Zone

Imaginary or real?
She claims it now is both

Just to do the best I can
Als Ick Kan still - by my troth!

Is it anti-Semitic
Or is it anti-anti Semitic?

Bipolar is not particularly good
For humility
Especially when you hit the highs

I love mystic flight
I often stare the skies

But please, O life, keep me grounded too
I can't figure out the deepest whys
Like everyone else, I am one who dies

All I ever really wanted to do
With the poems
And teaching
And basketball
And my marriage
And the letters
And studying
And traveling
And political efforts
And religious ideas
And philosophy
And friendship
And fatherhood

And life itself


Is to be one who tries.

Als Ick Kan journeys on!

Dr. Cohen speaks
Of Shakespeare's plays
As a gift

Thank you kindly
For the lift

Hitch Hikin'

I'm not an academic
I just write some poems
Sadness in the morning
Burning firelight

Sleep perchance to dream
Staunton aglow in snow
The Matrix comes at Christmas
Krakow would delight

          Red pill. Mystic flight.

Shenandoah Shakespeare into the night
     Staunton in snow, Blackfriars in light
            To sing is to know, to play is alright.

                                   Delight!

A love for the English language, yes
Pero, un pequito Espanyol tambien
La Florida in summer
San Francisco Zen

Staunton aglow in snow
Dr. Cohen calls Shakespeare the Gift
Anxiety attacks
Grateful when the depression lifts

I was in the UK twice
Went to Poet's Corner
Long Black Veil
Solitary Mourner

I love American music
But I'm not that great a singer
My lips upon her lips
Her hair within my fingers

Simone Weil in Assisi
1937
Guernica as well
Stranger Things' 11

          Merci

Shakespeare alive in Staunton
Lights on; Dr. Cohen.

We in the back row
Prospero is knowin'

Staunton all in snow
I drive home in night

Maybe Infinite I know
Things don't work out right

But wondrous strange is true
And well worth the fight.

Powerful!

Saying good job
To Rene Thornton

And to Prospero

And (he appears)
To William Shakespeare

Lonely isolation
Not a female friend in sight
Rarely conversation
Paranoia plight

Way off in the distance
A flicker from the past
Rendezvous resistance
Hey Now! Everlast

2037
3772
Colorado Rockies
Pondicherry Zoo

Hamnet. Susanna. Judith.
Sleepy Staunton, Virginia
Jimmy Reed Indeed
And everything within ya

With Light comes the Shadow
I drive home alone
Early days in Venice
Future still Unknown

            Tintoretto!

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