ping pong with my youngest son
     back and forth little one
              despite despair

           you make life fun!

I was in Japan
For 10 or 11 days
Tokyo to Kyoto
Dressed up like a Samurai

Lost in Translation
Snow Falling on Cedars
Rieko and Takahiro
Shiva's third eye

I like miso soup
Snowfall shunyata
Edamame for my sons
Salmon teriyaki for I

Tokyo to Bangkok
Motorcycle taxis
Som tam. Panang curry.
I Thai Wai

                 Ry.

Arrival
2. Galaxy Quest
3. 2001 A Space Odyssey
4. I, Robot
5. I Am Legend
6. Blade Runner 2049
7. Star Wars ( All of it )
8. Star Trek
9. Midnight Special
10. Minority Report

I still seek the Unseen
but, of course, I can't see it

I once read of the Beguines
but, of course, I can't be it

life is a horror story
but also dear with wild hope

so much is just endurance
waking, sleeping cope

what is it that I want?
where can we elope?

Too tired to do too much
Movies more than books now
Sleeping
Soul sorrow

Crumbling Irish churches
Restaurants closing
Politics portends
Baltimore tomorrow

Grateful for my dad
Mostly quiet
He's 10 years old!
xie xie, O Life, xie xie

             Daoist Way

His shirt is John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word
Logos
But to me it's all Greek

Dee Ann Reeder
Heather Harrison
Wendy Towson
Susan Meek

The Eternal Feminine draws us on
She sings
Sings
When She cannot speak

Thailand
Temple of the Dawn
Arapahoe, Seminole, Navajo
Comanche, Apache, Creek

                Coincidence!

The silence is eternal
I hear it as I moan

Honeymoon in Paris
Honeymoon in Rome

Marital despair
I now on my own

The silence is eternal
God is the Unknown

The mystery of the other person
The tragedy of life

The snow and sleet and rain
The society of strife

I like to sleep in peace
In the morning I will call

Another night, another day
All for one and one for all!

Inside: loneliness and pain
Outside: pitter patter rain

There are times when I'm reading
I sense in the silence
The Nothing, the Absence
Never to meet again

World of pain. World of illusion.
World of violence. World of confusion.

Still two green lights outside
Still remember Malahide
Still love the Princess Bride.
I tried, Father. I tried.

awake in the night
cold coyote calls
All Walls Fall

The isolation is quite frightening
But it isn't entirely true

My roommates are still here
Family on Facebook too

I am both alone and not
My loved ones in my heart

I write a few little poems
Suffering produces art.

This need to fight in me
Not sure where it comes from

My father was in the Air Force
They sent him to Vietnam

I do not like that war
But my dad learned to fly planes

I know mystic flight
And I know secret flames

And I heard Thich Nhat Hanh
I call him by his true names

11:11 a.m.
And I am still in bed

Hopes and fears and silences
Runnin' round my head

I eat and sleep and worry
Wait for the phone to ring

The hope comes from the scientists
With that vaccine thing

Human, only human
Ding **** ding **** ding.

Said J.R.R. Tolkien

1:11 a.m.
Up late, quiet alone

Sent the letter
Will I have to phone?

Mysteries come
As hints and guesses

Childhood
Still can blesses

The Nos contain
Hidden Yeses.

1:11 a.m.
Yes, I am wake

Peacefully the crickets
Irish rebel songs

Gonna attack the priest
Lady of the Lake

Mr. Charles Darwin
Mr. Harry Wong

The Tao Te Ching advises quiescence, and wu wei, taking no action that is contrary to nature.  It also exalts the humble and lowly with the compelling image of water that always moves to the lowest place, and yet can wear away stone.

                      - Understanding Taoism
                     Jennifer Oldstone-Moore

1:11
Marguerite Porete
Not quite yet ...

         Eckhart.

sleeping late, frightening dreams
        would you really want things
                to be not quite what they seem?

I agree:   more is less; less is more.

                But for whose troubled team?

Mist in Budapest
White owl, Grey sky

   When will I die?

So I studied philosophy
And religion
And theology
And myth

Many people
Many modern people
Would regard this
As a colossal waste of time

They might be right.
I am now 53
Unemployed
On disability
Living alone

The Bangkok temples at night are quiet
The traffic outside is loud
But inside
The Buddha sits.
Silencio.

A different kind of man
That's what the General's father says
In Embers.
Chopin, not a soldier

He's actually her ex-boyfriend
The Joker
But if he lets her go
It would hurt her
Not help

Lunch time: miso soup with kelp.

Both innocent and guilty
Both pure and a bit corrupt

Do you eat the bread?
Will you drink the offered cup?

Dinosaurs once roamed the Earth
Now we have the cars

Some scientists think water
Is to be found on Mars

Is chaos too a mystery
In this Chaos of ours?

The nightmare of our history
The glory story stars.

Pythagoras said, All is number
I wonder what he meant?

37.37
On sneakers that I spent

Yes, the mystic madness
At times appeals to me

All those 37s
On license plates I see

They say apophenia
I do not fight back

Just walk my lonesome way
Plan my next attack

U2 on my stereo
Leonard late in London

No job just now
My father is my fundin'

But I keep applying
Something will break through

C'mon now, Mr. Biden
Workin' hard for you

             Pythagaroo!

Empty hotel room
    In my solitude
              112

Often life is just too hard for me
The chaos and the pain

But my love for my wondrous 3
And oh! the Purple Rain

Now you see, Now you see
The Trumpists are insane

I lie awake, 11:23
Keep them safe again.

The darkness has come again
As it always does

Maybe postmodernity
Maybe just because

I lay in bed and lonely
Don't read much anymore

American despair
Waves crash on the shore

      Dread. Like before.

The memories linger
Stockholm sun

Misty Dublin
She's the One!

I'm lonely and tired
Miss them dearly

How much time?
Tick tock yearly.


        Christmas!

No birds singing now
Darkness, electric light

We all drift towards death
Things won't work out right

Wind in the trees
Philosophy don't know

Kindness, if you please
Nitnoy Reno snow

              Yo. Yo. Yo!

99 percent
Such is my cell phone

99 percent
I feel quite alone

I keep sleeping through the days
Wandering through the nights

Markson on my left
Tolkien on my right

Prayers for my young sons
They are my true delight

Prayers for dealing doctors
Don't give up the fight!

Gotta love those medieval philosophers
Alchemy, winding streets
Cistercians, Inquisitions
Fire to the feet

Sometimes I stare at fire
Carolina Inn
She's the object of my desire
Where would we begin?

America is the Swirl
Highwater Everywhere
Tom Joad not the Pearl
County Fair! County Fair!

The Irish church in ruins
Will I get to Istanbul?
Late night pub in Boston
The wearing of the wool

                 1137

We sit in the restaurant
Me and my youngest son

A priest one table away
Conversation has begun

Rolling Stones on the radio
The sound is rockin' true

Bill comes to $11:37
I know it's just coincidence
(but I like it, like it - Yes I do!)

11:37
Kamala Harris
India meets Jamaica

  in San Francisco

11:37
About to text Mark
Thinking of Mr. Keillor
And the beautiful brown woman
From Malaysia
I spoke with tonight at the basketball court

Coconut curry. Dragonfuit. Durien.
Slow and steady for me please. Not hurryin'.

11:37
I think of Leonard Cohen

Late along in London
Wonderfully knowin'

He himself was broken
The music's beauty showin'

I yearn to be a sailor
Wherever the wind is blowin'

                Starry sky above
             Ain't no cure for love.

wokeup late
a little light

thinking less
no mind of fright

Hunan vegetable
Buddha's delight

childhood
Mr. Spock kite

  well alright!

basketball again into the night
         silent walk home
           black brothers

11:37
The night is dark and quiet

I've taken some real risks
More? I'm gonna try it.

Don't know what will happen
Intuition leads

Memories and missions
Meekly mustard seeds

                  Reads.

11:37
11:38

time tick tocks
born too late?

or maybe destiny
not foot Fate

my past, my muse
my angry mate

all alone now
seperate

a time for love
a time for hate

silent God
world creates.

I have problems with the fear
I want to sleep and sleep

Loved ones not quite near
Eternal silence deep

Very little money
For me alive to keep

But Pharoah's army drownded
O Mary, don't ya weep.

Diabetes, high cholesterol
Gout, anxiety, bipolar

               Endurance!

51 years
A million fears

3 beautiful sons
My darling ones

the terrors of the Night
                 silence amidst the violence
                                   waiting

11:37 p.m.
Pink Floyd to Mark

My friend dear
Wish you were here!

11:37
One for Johnny Cash

Folsom Prison Blues
Boy Named Sue to make them laugh

You and Westley
Both the Man in Black

You are gone from us now
But your music will come back!

Extinction forever.

Like we were never even born.

Einstein and Shakespeare
Sittin' havin' a beer
Einstein tryin' to figure out
The number that adds up to bliss
Shakespeare says, Man, it all starts with a kiss

Einstein is scratchin'
Somethin' on his napkin
Shakespeare says,
Man, it's just 1 and 1 makes 3
That's why it's poetry

    - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
                   "Frankie Fell in Love"