I met Al at Menningers.
We were both patients there.
We were both on Men's Work Group.
The more I got to know Al, the more I
liked him. When we both got out of the
hospital, we spent time together.
He bought a farm north of Lawrence
and began farming organically, unusual
for a guy who grew up in Sutton Place,
one of the most expensive places to live
in the world, smackdab in the heart of
Manhattan, NYC. His great-grandfather
was a partner of J.P. Morgan. His father,
who owned five mansions around the world,
chose the one in Virginia in which to blow
his brains out against the wall of one of the 23
bedrooms. Al was up at 6 every morning
in his overalls to begin driving his tractor
in the fields and didn't stop until the sun
went down. You'd never know Al was a
billionaire, unless you became a buddy of
his, which I did. He was a bit eccentric person
at times, however. For example, he enjoyed
buying mostly classic foreign cars which he
had fun driving around for a few months,
then driving each into the field next to his
small house and left them there. From time
to time I'd drive down from Topeka to his
farm, then the two of us would go to a
steakhouse just outside of Lawrence, then
eat and chat. Al was one of the nicest guys
I ever met.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I won't live no more  
in that old shrunk white house.
I'll live in them woods.
I'll live in them fields.
I'll live in them mountains
or on the beach.
I won't have to listen
to all them dumb ads
on TV, all them commercials
about fat burgers that will **** ya,
cheap, glossy fake diamond rings,
new cars that look all alike,
insurance guys that make me sick.
I'll lie under the sky and sing
to them stars, kiss the sun good morning,
enjoy the company of deer and squirrels,
find the freshest air and breathe it,
the clearest water and drink it.
I'll be free 'til I die, and free forevermore
when I do. I won't live no more
in that old shrunk white house.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I'm thinking of Gandhi.
As far as I know,
he never wrote a poem.
But his life was one
of the greatest poems ever.
His poem's theme
was nonviolence.
I would say its theme
was LOVE, love of self
and of everyone else.
He defied despots
not with guns, but with
the steel of love. He walked
to the sea with thousands.
He never fought with hate,
but by fasting 'til death,
if need be. His net worth
was $1 when he was shot
dead. He was the richest
man on Earth, and one of
the greatest poets ever.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We are all on the same train.
The train is endless.
Though we look and speak differently,
we are all the same.
When the train stops,
some get on, others get off.
We travel through
sorrow and elation,
hope and despair,
ignorance and wisdom.
But our destination
is the same:
Love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Lines and cubes, unparalleled construction,
participles that don't dangle, heads of horses,
Guernica in stanzas, feelings contorted,
crying while dying, iambic pentameters,
stiff arms straight up, screams wide open,
metaphors and ******, hanging on walls of
Museo Nacional Centre de Arte Reina Sofia,
blue pillows on the floor, broken legs and
arms, ******* and agonies, montage of
blood and brutality, peace and war, love
and kisses, hits and misses, curves and
angles, bulls beheaded, silence and solemnity,
silver-blue stars bursting through open
windows, helplessness and hope. Picasso
and I.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

How many of you belong to the AMERICAN FASCIST PARTY (formerly the Republican Party)?

**** Trump is the first (Lincoln was a Republican) to be elected president of the United States of America. During **** Trump's tenure, there were 1,716 mass shootings in America and close to 2,000 human beings killed.

The AR-15, a weapon of war. Heard of it? Have one? It's legal. Buy as many as you like. If you tried to shoot a pheasant with one and you hit it, you'd have only feathers.

It does the same to a child's body. A grieving mother in Uvalde, Texas had to identify her dead son by a sock he had worn to school.  The AR-15 had torn up the body so badly, the mother could not recognize her dead child.

The 2nd Amendment guaranteed a citizen's right to own a MUSKET, not a de facto machine gun. The right to own as many AR-15s as you wish, even one, is insanity, pure and simple.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Close your eyes.
Take my hand.
Place it softly
on your bare breast.
Now I lean forward,
brush your hair aside.
Kiss me tenderly.
Whisper love to me.
I'll do the same.
Take my other hand.
Put it on your naked thigh.
Let me feel your body arch.
I am above you now.
You smell like roses.
I kiss your entire body.
I kiss it again in case
I missed any curve.
I am in you now.
I close my eyes.
We are one.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS