So this is 18881 and yes
I am intrigued by palindromes
Merlin travels back in time
All roads lead to Rome

Spanish lullabies
Her Highland Ranch fine home
Galway Girl
Springsteen in the Tacoma Dome

She sent a curious email
Trappist 1 still unknown
Giordano Bruno
Exoplanets shone

When Doves Cry
Tears on your phone
Carolina Inn
She and I alone

   Ah! Perpetually Postponed

18 times 4 is 72
Gal Gadot - 1 fine looking Jew!
Just wanna do the best I can do
Istanbul: Will I see U?

              Satellite Beach
              See me threw!

Albert Camus at JMU
             Absurd!

JMU
Albert Camus
The Absurd in view


Wanhope.

................JMU............
             Camus
             Absurd

Richard Wright, 1937
      New York City
            Protest!

Born Bertha Bowman, 1937
Thesis on St. Thomas More
             Sister Thea

So on my mantle is Picasso's Guernica
1937
And a photo, black and white,
Of me as a child in Taiwan
Near a pachinko machine
I am sitting in front of it
A little Taiwanese girl
Is standing next to it
We are 2 or 3 years old.

I also have my teaching diploma
From George Mason
Plus a small green figure
Of the Madonna and Child
Which my mother gave me
When she noticed me not going
To Mass much anymore
Before she died.

Mary has Asian eyes.

Picasso was asked
By a German military officer
Did you do this?

His reply: No, you did.

1937.

Professor Mcginn
       Eckhart
         1937

Cold and rain outside
I stay in and wait

I like Heraclitus
Not Alexander the Great

Vegetarian tacos
They do satiate

But for fine philosophy
Born too late, Born too late

After God, born too late
Please destiny more than fate
David Markson: truly great
    Sleep. Dream. Meditate.

I am not a saint, dear reader
But I have had religious obsessions
I have more hope in basketball
Than Bibles or benedictions

Asia calls my name
In the silence and the sadness
Prayers for Taiwan
Ice and snow and water and flame

Born too late
Married the wrong woman
Fatherhood is joy
Basketball my game

American politics is Chaos
Libraries are quiet
The gun nuts are ******
Her smile still the same

         Just had to get it out

                I do not blame.

the language animal of myth and magic
    self and world - both quite tragic
          though I'm born too late
             she's gotta have it...


                    tender spells
        (truly, truly -  I wish her well)

1972
Neil Diamond in France

When the time is right
Lord Shiva does his dance

Been to Angkor Wat
Vienna is romance

Dearest Emily
Her poetry does prance

           learning

flickers of memories
my dad and Scott and I
             T-ball
         birth of Ry

my life right now seems meaningless
so I play basketball

the country clearly a complete mess
since 2016’s Fall

I shoot in twilight’s silence
as they keep on building that Wall

Up is down, left is right, war is peace
America is Orwell after all

I like Emily Dickinson
Wore a white tux
Her dress was black and grey
Hotel room, basketball

Florida is ignorance
And powerful thunderstorms
Lightning over the Atlantic
I've been to Royal Albert Hall

She joined Alpha Chi Omega
I read Pythagoras
Her hair was very long
******* beautiful and small

Not to be born is best
That's what Sophocles said
He never met Wendy Towson
But I once did y'all

              1985. Fall.

I like Emily Dickinson
Wore a white tux
Her dress was black and grey
Hotel room my call

Florida is ignorance
And powerful thunderstorms
Lightning over the Atlantic
I've been to Royal Albert Hall

She joined Alpha Chi Omega
I read Pythagoras
Her hair was very long
******* beautiful and small

Not to be born is best
That's what Sophocles said
He never met Wendy Towson
But I once did y'all

              1985. Fall.

I like Emily Dickinson
Wore a white tux
Her dress was black and grey
Hotel room was small

Florida is ignorance
And powerful thunderstorms
Lightning over the Atlantic
I've been to Royal Albert Hall

She joined Alpha Chi Omega
I read Pythagoras
Her hair was very long
******* beautiful and small

Not to be born is best
That's what Sophocles said
He never met Wendy Towson
But I once did y'all

              1985. Fall.

I like Emily Dickinson
Wore a white tux
Her dress was black and grey
Hotel room was small

Florida is ignorance
And powerful thunderstorms
Lightning over the Atlantic
I've been to Royal Albert Hall

She joined Alpha Chi Omega
I read Pythagoras
Her hair was very long
******* beautiful and small

Not to be born is best
That's what Sophocles said
He never met Wendy Towson
But I once did y'all

              1985. Fall.

I like Emily Dickinson
Wore a white tux
Her dress was black and grey
Hotel room was small

Florida is ignorance
And powerful thunderstorms
Lightning over the Atlantic
I've been to Royal Albert Hall

She joined Alpha Chi Omega
I read Pythagoras
Her hair was very long
******* beautiful and small

Not to be born is best
That's what Sophocles said
He never met Wendy Towson
But I once did y'all

              1985. Fall.

I've loved Susan for so long
But I'm such a geek

She is now in Denver
Blessed are the Meek

Quietly the night again
Darkness comes to call

My family in Maryland
My mind in Wetheral

               River Eden
                Misty Fall

I'm a product of my time
Arriving a bit too late

But I'm time out of mind
Dylan is my mate

To make you feel my love
I sent you secret words

They came back to me in song
Which shows me that you heard

The Highway of Regret
Is long and dark and lonesome

I spoke of you to Mark
Now I'm on my ownsome

We may never meet again
We may 2037

St. Augustine at sunset
To be young was very heaven

                1985 - 1987

Just coincidence, not a cause
The play of chance, Santa Clause
I get the panic terror
Try to place my mind on pause
Lonely isolation, only feel my flaws

Memory comes to me
1986
Workin' on mysteries without any clues
Better than guitar licks

It's gonna get scary as I get close
Please calm amidst the fear
2 Thai tigers
3 deer dear

               Angels appear

The basketball player and the cheerleader
My romantic teenage nights

Long before Chiraq
Cars, not mystic flights

Now my Letter to You
Now silence. Now the church.

Farewell and Adieu
The silence is the search.

When I don't take the medicine
Sometimes I have intense dreams
As just now, for instance
Israel. Shema Israel.

Divergent
Post-apocalyptic Chicago
Knoa and Jessica
Mr. Witherell

Desantis is Disgusting
**** flags at DisneyWorld
Which was Grad Night for me
1987

Allison
Judi
Mike and Steve
Kevin

                      La Florida ...

I used to be a teacher
I definitely ain't no preacher
I never could quite reach her
But there is beauty in her features
I remember her in the bleachers

                 '87!

Do not talk to me about the Infinite love and mercy of God until you have visited the children's cancer ward of your local hospital.

                        - Bertrand Russell

The brilliant atheist mathematician and philosopher is quite right.  We must put our faith into practice. So after Mass there will be sign up sheets.  We are going to visit the nursing home, the homeless shelter, the mental hospital, and, yes, the children in the hospital, some of them suffering from terrible diseases.  We are going to be their companions.  Vans will leave from the CCM house.  Please come if you can.  Then come back to Mass next week, share what you learned, and I will speak with you about the Infinite love and mercy of God.

                        - Fr. Bill Lafratta
                  Catholic Campus Ministry
                  James Madison University
                                    1987

Westley is a man of action
Unbecome by lies
1987
I laugh until I cries

I am a disabled man
Broken in my brain
Inner silences
Fear. Hear. Pain.

Gratitude stands guard
Threats indeed abound
Guns and ignorance
Confusion all around

I walk my dailiness
Ain't lookin' for a fight
Looking for vocation
Looking for the light

          Still I write.

I dreamed of her again
Hair all flowing down

35 years later
Far from our little town

I sleep now through the days
Yearn for her at night

Grow old in this maze
Brown hair can still delight.

What might have been
What might have been

All is Vanity!
And chasing after the wind

To find a little uniquity
You have to do it different
Postcards and stamps
Warrior Poet fight

I go down quite lonely
Sleep away the sadness
Solitude is painful
The Princess Bride delights

                    1987

The Princess Bride
New Year's Eve, 1987

Maybe we don't survive death
But our first kiss was Heaven

30 years pass
Letter in the mail

Unexpected is what she said
Does true love prevail?

Earn more sessions by sleaving
           Worms, Roxanne!
                     Worms!

Songs for the Land of the Living
While waiting upon my bed

Fezzik, do you see rocks?
If so, we'll all be dead

Into the Fire Swamp
Is where the Princess Wesley led

I too at times rush in
Where angels fear to tread

Courage and contemplation
Opposites must wed

Stop that rhyming, I mean it!
Foolish Vizzini said

Anybody want a peanut?
As you wish ahead!

Songs for the Land of the Living
While waiting weary upon my bed

Fezzick, do you see rocks?
If so, we’ll all be dead

It’s true I love the Blues
No way would I vote red

Into the Fire Swamp
Is where the Princess Wesley led

At times I too rush in
Where angels fear to tread

Courage and contemplation
Opposites must wed

Stop that rhyming, I mean it!
Is what foolish Vizzinni said

Anybody want a peanut?
As you wish ahead!

The yearning for the Deep, the depths, Sophia
But, alas, the shallows
I eat some pretzel sticks
Remember Harrisonburg

JMU is purple and gold
Never ever ever hold
Albert Camus
And I grow old

                O Shenandoah!

Women as they actually are:
******, Suggestible, Selfish
The Universities have collapsed
Better to walk alone.

Nihilism in the Night
Vegetarian sausage
Speeding tickets
Cell phones

           Coulianou. Ioan.

Seattle University library
Mario Cuomo: Who is God?
        yo soy solo Todd

Seattle's homeless. Seattle's snow.

                         Yo

A Man Called Otto
Gonna watch today
A couple months in Stockholm
A couple months xie xie

Stanley Yelnats and Zero
Mom. Dad. Bob.
Jokic on the break
Susan with the lob

Politics portends
John Brown. Nat Turner.
Wisdom Water Wends
Minority Report to fern her

Phillip K. ****
Emily Dickinson
In Charleston beans and rice
Won Ton Taipei 101

           Thy Will Be Done?

19999
Waking Ned Devine
Some other time
Guilt, but I still climb

Never right without the woman
Therefore, never right
Carolina Inn
2 flights 1 night's delights

Fire on the patio
Bipolar fascination
Heraclitus more than Thales
San Francisco meditation

A Man Called Otto
Me at Angkor Wat
JMU, Albert Camus
Mi hermano Scott


      The Old Man and the Sea

                  Si. I taught.

Basketball under the lights
Irish clover t-shirt delights
               hoopin'!

Always searching
Desperation
Consciousness is pain

Catholic churching
Devastation
Cold November Rain

Guns N' Roses
Sweet Child O' Mine
Her hair it does remind me

Come Together
Heaven's Door a Sign
But they might never find me

Plurality and Ambiguity
Gonna be some shadow falls
Tryin' to get to Florida
Dodgin' them Georgia laws

Plurality and Darkness
Followed by a truck
I loved living in Dublin
A little Irish luck

Plurality and mystery
In ways I can't control
Country, pop, the Blues
80s rock n' roll

Plurality within me
Ambiguity too
Gamla Stan, Thich Nhat Hanh
Dear dear Tienmu

                 Oui. Parlez Vous?

So I admit, dear reader,
I kinda wonder
If I am going to be discovered
After I die.

I am in love with 2 women
Not my wife
One my Muse
One my Ex

              They both know now.

                 What comes next?

I want to help my country
Especially in its danger now

The threat is existential
So first I carefully bow

Then I search for words
That lead to the true Path

Beauty can be numerical
Poetry like math

1 tonight for my boys
1 at Taipei 101
Un pequito Espanyol
Un pequito Midnight Sun

Time tick tocks
La Florida for fun
My Mr. Spock socks
See how they run

      Only just begun ...