Yes, Mr. Markson

So we are alone? they asked
And the guru did reply

Yes, we’re alone, he said
All alone in this vasty cosmic sky

Are there others? they asked
And once again, the guru heard their cry

Yes, there are others, he said
they’re alone too, wherever they now sigh

gentle morning light awakens
        another day, another solitude
                      library calls

amateur means one who loves
   I sing alone, crying doves
             She’s the One
            I’m thinking of.

don't believe in countries
they always rise and fall

languages last longer
though still transient after all

words they come with waking
in this word of raging violence

I sit, my soul still shaking
brown chapel, sacred silence

Alone in the brown chapel
Silence the Lord saith

Look not on our sins
But on our (often hidden) faith

Like unto Thomas More
Not Henry the eighth

To be like Mr. Frodo
And resist the ring-wraith

                     Amen.

One must go on working.
And one must have patience.

The Revolution is now forming
Jefferson will fall
So will **** Columbus
Long live Wetheral!

I wait and wander lonely
I play basketball
She's my One not only
Sophia standing tall

  Sophia ah! All ya'll.

Eliade is ambiguous
Abraham and Isaac too

Ishmael knows ambiguity
God hears in Hebrew

I cannot fear my contradictions
They prove I am quite human

My mind flies toward the divine
But no one is assumin'

That I actually get there
I'm down here with all the others

So often so afraid
For my wife and sons and brothers

The body is the prison of the soul
According to Plato's teaching

But those bodies look so fine
When beauty Satellite Beaching

The soul is a mystery
No evidence until its absence

Sometimes I think she's my soul
That I haven't had since

We all become a corpse
Cornel West says that's funky

Eaten by worms or burned to ashes
Discarded and car *****

When my body turns to ashes
Throw them in Elliott Bay

If T.S. Eliot swims by
Tell him I say Hey

                         Along the Way

slipping into the bookstore
      hey ** the wind and the rain
                 downbound train

Taipei, Taiwan typhoons
    Shinkansen speeding soon
           In Bangkok the monsoons
                  Seattle (I view the moon)...


and the rain it raineth every day.

Fellow student:  They're from Harrisonburg.  They're getting married and they're only 18.  It's too young. Too immature. They're not ready yet.

Me: Yeah, I think that is too young to get married.

Dr. William Thomas (of blessed memory):  Todd, if it wasn't for immature young love, the world would have ended a long time ago.

A long time ago the world began
With hey ** the wind and the rain

Born to run and we ran
The joy, the boys, and the pain

Bruce Springsteen he's the man
Stephen King up there in Maine

I really don't have much of a plan
Will I ever see her again?

That's all one. My poem's done.
She says she's moving to Spain.

                   La Mancha!

I like those European trains
Speeding through the night
The Old Man and the Sea
Gatsby's green light

Hey ** the wind and the rain
My beloved sons
A little poetry
When the Day is Done

           Y un pequito fun

grey way blues
    the rain it raineth every day
               my my, hey hey ...

Entertainment
We'll strive to please you every day

Shakespeare in Staunton
101 in Taipei

Daoist hermits
Follow the Way

Rock n' roll music
The way adult Americans play

Entertainment is the thing
We'll strive to please you every day

Shakespeare in Staunton
101 in yon Taipei

Hidden Daoist hermits
Following the Way

Rock n' roll mystery music
The way adult Americans play

1:37 rollin’ round
         Niels Bohr nature comes to town
                   if one is up, then one is down ...

                         Copenhagen!

Catholic monks like Buddhist monks
Silent in the night

Ah! The Grande Chartreuse
Ah! The mystic flight

St. Bruno, Bodhisattva
Pray and meditate

The world has gone from bad to worse
Where is the open gate?

There's a lot of hate in America
And a lot of ignorance as well

But there are also Seattle ferryboats
And the bar called Kells

And my brother Ryan
And books in library shelves

Some of them speak secretly
Of holy hidden eleves

Oxford crosses the water
To say: things may go well!

A lot of little poems
Writing in the night
Alex teaching in Tucson
Sor Juana's mystic flight

Take my son to work
Keep him in the way
A little dailiness
A little si xie xie

        un pequito pray

For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo

Sometimes secrets
Hide in secrets

Letters
In mystery mail

Glasses for
New vision

Get free
Out of Jail

Because I am bipolar
I roller coaster ride

If the Sacred I truly told her
Then it surely hides

                      Guides?

2020, clearer vision?
the world is home, the world is prison
her wicked words like an incision...

                              Omega Point

Already confessed
No need to confess again
God is forgiving
Knows where I have been

So I try to trust
I've seen Jerusalem
I can because I must
Be true to my few friends

                  hope

Here I am at the Celtic Cross
Remembering Ireland

Malahide like a painting
Belfast and back again

Benjamin and I on the court tonight
Soulful, peaceful, calm

Charming smile, we talk awhile
Carolina balm

                     listening

I don't have to have it all figured out
Just have to play my part
I am Cinna the Poet!
Not Napoleon Blown Apart

The wedding was in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv was blue
Sent her City of Ember
And Horton Hears a Who

Elly de la Cruz
Cincinnati Reds
Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio
Grandma's Feather Beds

I'm still on the lookout
Still plot and plan
SJW
The Mosque of Colors in Iran

                  Love in a Chevy van

Roald Dahl's birthday today
          Human beans
              Charlie!

Complete patriotic *******
The American Abyss
Thank you for your service
Now my *** you can kiss

Thailand is quite chaotic
Heat, traffic, ***
Respect for the King
But not Oedipus Rex

Old monk one night
Silent meditation
Women in Tai Chi
Me bipolar elevation

I think I write for Posterity
Mine and yours and theirs
Take the money and run
Shoot off two green flares

America was born in hate
Slavery, genocide
But basketball on a summer night
Cannot be denied

The 'Mercans will exclude ya
Build that Border Wall
Uppsala in the Spring
'Merca in Freefall

           Mozart Christmas Eve
                Royal Albert Hall

               Curious Road Dahl

A few days, slowly
A little rock n' roll
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Midnight's broken toll

Just to do my best
Poems in the night
Then to take my rest
Sor Juana's mystic flight
    
                    Alright!

What I have is words
Try to reach you
Walk at night
Fireflies

Moby ****
Ishmael
Bulkington
I do not denies

Other worlds
Silent deaths
My brother Ryan
Her beauty blue eyes

Destiny
Destiny
Waiting alone
One who tries

                Portland.

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

Just to do the best I can
With the little time I have left
Take care of my sons
Children are a gift

America goes down
All empires fall
Took the train from London
River Eden, Wetheral

I like books and movies
I've been to monasteries
In Dublin meant to be
Heard the tales of Irish fairies

Won ton soup tonight
Gracias xie xie
Daoists in the mountains
Silent is the Way

My mom's photos next to my bed
Almost 20 years now she has been dead

Now she lives in you
I was told when she died

I could barely stand
Cried, cried, cried

I'd like to believe I'll see her again
But it probably is not true

O mom! With my time left
Help me help Scott and Ry

And do the very best that I can do.

intense the ambiguity
so confusing - the end I cannot see
Prayers to Love to set us free

                 Amen

Fear of forever forgotten
Fear of sins remembered
Gotta fight my fears
Till I'm soul Septembered

Memory is mystery
How much will get through?
No way to know
Just do the best I can do

                for me
               For You.

Who is your favorite author?

Me: David Markson

Why?

Me: Because he tried his best

Just to do my best
Even with my wounds

The wound is near the gift
The gift is near the moon

The moon is in the sky
A glowing cosmic tune

When I come to die
Show her Flaming June.

Emily:  in the light of her own fire
Gilbert:  weary, weary is the world
               but here the world's desire
Me: a counterpuncher, a letter sender,
        a middle school teacher, a friend,
                    above all: a trier

to battle back despair aware
       courage for to care
         fare future faire...


               fatherhood

Qualyxians to protect
        Cosmically to connect
                 Reassurance resurrect

                       I vow now!

Derrick meets me on Franklin Street
We speak of Resurrection

Basketball next week
I must not seek perfection

Just do my best, the best I can
Then wait and hoop at night

Dribble right, left hand three
The game is played in flight

                  Delight!

America is Ignorance
Desantis, Trump, Disgusting
But it's also sports and music
Susan Darlene Meek

Time marches on
People change and smile
Death on the Highway
I'm a board game geek

Would like to visit Budapest
Do not have the money
President Cornel West?
Do we find just what we seek?

Philadelphia
Theology of movies
Patientia
3772. Catholic Buddhist Jew.

    Like Leonard Cohen: Unique.

Do you believe in ghosts, friend?
I ain't never seen one

But I understand being haunted
Especially by a she one

Hallowed means holy
As with Holy Names

And not on Halloween only
But also in songs of fame