He said, what makes you imperfect
Also makes you compassionate

Your issues
May not be identical to others'
But you know what it means to struggle

To struggle with yourself

Open books on an empty shelf.

In the Chinese tradition
You can get the Master's degree
In a monastery

But if you want the PhD in spirituality
You have to go live alone in the mountains.

Basketball with Edward
Sky all twilight blue
He speaks of sweet Sevilla
And also Al-Andalus
I tell him of Taipei
We escape the noose
I wish for Southern Spain
Breaking free, breaking loose
One day when it rains
We ride el autobus

                 Viva!

God is also a lie
But a pretty one it's true

Many people need Him
To help them make it through

I am lost and longing
Sometimes I need Her too

But Eternal Silence
Is what I hear and view

Everything I have ever let go of has claw marks on it.

                    - David Foster Wallace

That dark thing inside
Which can see the weakness in others

That dark thing inside
Which destroys what it uncovers

That dark thing inside
Which knows of others' mothers

That dark thing inside
Which the Light also discovers

Gracias, Mr. Markson.

Your work deserves to Endure!

Avoid the company of women.

What if one of them should speak to us?

Remain very awake, Ananda.

God sits High
But looks low.

I don't believe in God.

It doesn't matter. He believes in you.

Markson and terrificness
In isolation he writes of light

Flooding in New York city
But I'm not there tonight

Plato called it world soul
Freud the Unconscious

Jesus he was taken
To Pilate (the one called Pontius)

Rain on my window
Pain comes and goes

California has the sun
Maine has the snows

I wrote some intimate letters
Now others also knows.

So much so much so much self doubt
Panicky fear fear fear
But courage going forward
Whisper in my ear

Do the best I can
The best I can and trust
Not just me and 3
Also me and us

The pain that living brings
The comfort of blue sky blue
My need for silence at times
And my need for you

             Pondicherry Zoo

the ineffable mystery of being
    imagination a kind of seeing
         silence for attention is freeing ...

                           other worlds.

alterity and posterity
often on my mind

in a sense both unknown worlds
different in design

so close and yet so far
I’m the connecting kind

I think of them quite curiously
what do future others/other futures find?

The Man in the High Castle
    What’s the use of cap and tassel?
           perhaps the status quo to hassle -

                                breakthroughs.

...............Moon slips...............
          behind the clouds
             Protective sends
               Qualyxians!

A lunatic is a lover
And luna is the moon
Sailing in the nightsky
A glowing cosmic tune
Yellow for our yearning
Silver like a spoon
I've even seen her strawberry
But just this once in June
She calls to me in silence:
Come to see me soon.
I am her lonesome lover
She is my secret swoon.

a lunatic’s a lover
and Luna is the moon

her beauty in the nightsky
like a glowing cosmic tune

often yellow for our yearning
sometimes silver like a spoon

I’ve even seen her strawberry
but just this once in June

she calls to me in quiet
please come to see me soon

I am her lonesome lover
she is my secret swoon.

A lunatic's a lover
And Luna is the moon

Shining in the nightsky
Like a glowing cosmic tune

Yellow for our yearning
Sometimes silver like a spoon

I've even seen her strawberry
But just this once in June

She calls to me in quiet
Please come to see me soon

I am her lonesome lover
She is my secret swoon

A lunatic's a lover
And Luna is the moon
Silent music in the nightsky
Like a glowing cosmic tune

Yellow for our yearning
Sometimes silver like a spoon
I've even seen her strawberry
But just this once in June

She calls to me in silence:
Please come to see me soon.
I am her lonesome lover -
She is my secret swoon.

A lunatic's a lover
And Luna is the moon

Floating in the nightsky
Like a glowing cosmic tune

Yellow for our yearning
Sometimes silver like a spoon

I've even seen her strawberry
But just this once in June

She calls to me in silence
Please come to see me soon

I am her lonesome lover
She is my secret swoon

A lunatic’s a lover
And Luna is the moon

Her beauty in the nighttime
Like a glowing cosmic tune

Yellow for our yearning
Sometimes silver like a spoon

I’ve even seen her strawberry
But just this once in June

She calls to me in quiet
Please come see me soon

I am her lonesome lover
She is my secret swoon

Leonard Cohen in London
               Suzanne
                  Susan

Reading is a search
But we never find

Goes on till we die
This tormented mind

Basketball with my sons
Or maybe a little fishing

Then alone again
Wishing: always wishing

I don't have a calling, don't have a vocation
Time tick tocks
Waiting
Always waiting

Vienna in the snow
Reading Sandor Marai
My son reads Stephen King
Candidates debating

I like the little poems
Markson on my mind
Melville is the Master
Destiny placating

Quiet little libraries
Facebook, post some photos
In my solitude
Need to be relating

                El futuro!

Dr. Thomas, my favorite teacher
Under a southern sky

As your time to teach is through, I asked
Will you contemplate the Cosmic Why?

I’ll tell you the truth, Todd, he said
The honest truth, I will not lie

In retirement I will reread all of Karl Barth
And listen to Mozart every day until I die.

He is either mad
Or he has been reading Don Quixote.

maybe my meaning for others
not for me to see

one person pines and discovers
others let it be

religions say sisters and brothers
Nhat Hanh says: beloved, you are now me

if we live somehow in one another
we share one mind, at least poetically

Our immortality is for others
Not for our clinging selves
When we die we become mothers
And give birth to endless shelves

Of books we've never written
And stories we've never told
Young again in children
As our former selves grow old

Presently I am a father
And I love my three young sons
Yet still I muse on my maternity
And greet thee, my future darling ones

Even Dylan and Fr. Greeley
Were wrong about Billy Graham

So I watch carefully, and wait
I do not like green eggs and ham

Turtle Island, not Uncle Sam
Uncle Marty;  Georgetown, Ma'am

Little chapel, Joan of Arc
To go boldly for my Cam Cam!

Life along the Liffey
Riverruns and keeps on running

In this misty musical city
I keep playing, praying, punning

Post-modernity arrives
I reJoyce and am not shunning

Though much is taken, much abides
Including silence, exile, and cunning

Holy Mary,

    Please intercede.  I have not one single female friend.  Patience please. Let understanding be. And courage unto the end.

                                Amen

According to Ludwig Wittgenstein

From Garrison Keillor.

Like the sound of a girl saying Yes.

Amateur means one who loves
That's what I wish to be
Best time I ever had
Beauty Baltic Sea

European history
Asian bullet trains
Daily life, not mystery
Poetry: good insane.

      Jane! Jane! Jane!

Amateur means one who loves
That's what I wish to be
Childhood in Toledo
3333

Woke up from a dream
In Charlotte quite early
Sent it to Chicago
Hitch Hikin' naturally

O Life! O Life! O Life!
Please protect my 3
Dawn goes down to day
Night comes quietly

When the Day is Done
Ashes to the sea
All the rivers run
Stars shine silently

                   Si!

Amateur means one who loves
And that's what I wish to be

Spent my honeymoon in France
And sunlit Italy

Saw Chartres Cathedral
Merci, merci, merci

When I'm in times of trouble

                (Like now)

Mother Mary, help me see!

Amateur: one who loves
Not famous, Not paid, Not shoves
                  But loves.

An amateur is one who loves
That's what I wish to be
Honeymoon in France
Cycled the Baltic Sea

In this little town
There is much history
A bit entranced by John Brown
The way the slaves break free

Mad as the mist and snow
Transient as smoke
Deer park in Nara
Afraid, but I provoke

La Florida Senyoras
My children number 3
2037
Mr. Keating, Fr. Louis y we

               silent plea

An amateur is one who loves
That is all I wish to be
Honeymoon in France
Creme brulee for my 3

Ms. Pascal she can bake
Despite the tragedy
Rachel dies, Earthquake
Gotham under the sea

Now we got the Proud Boys
Marjorie Taylor Greene
I saw Adonis in Atlanta
Jolene! Jolene! Jolene!

The meditation hall was attractive
Wood, silence, glass
Everything is radioactive
When she has a beautiful ***

Florida is Ignorance
And 1987
Trinity Episcopal
Diet Coke at 7 11

                Boston Strong!

The Titanic built by a team of professionals
The Ark by a lone amateur

I've written and kneeled and been quite confessional
In the silence I pray She concurs