Poetry & Prose

When something he wanted to happen didn’t happen, he was not disappointed. When something he didn’t want to happen happened, he was not angered. When something he wanted to happen happened. he was not gleeful. Zeno the Stoic taught us to lead a well-tempered life....

At first I didn’t think about the last, first things were always first. The last could wait. Firsts would never last. Ironically, first things became the last first things, first words, first steps, first dance, first kiss. As Heraclitus taught us, your first step...

To be sheltered among echoes and mirrors, that’s what the candidate wanted, no hard shiny surface silent, reflected image, resounded voice. In the crowd, the politics of duplication, every thought identical, the governance of mimocracy. Does the candidate imitate the...

the whole world the hole whirled flung toward reversals  a charge, a sally, a rally a tinny tiny finale      

This is no private country. no one’s exclusive club. America is res publica a republic, a public thing. America belongs to no one, not even a favored God, who historically has demonstrated a preference for divine right kings and sometimes queens, a monarch, all power...

inspired by Gianni Vattimo  Would the world be better off with weak religion? I don’t know. I’m just asking. I think so. Weak religion would not claim to know everything, to have all the answers, provide the single solution to multiple woes of humankind. Weak religion...

It’s tucked, there, behind the grey fold, under the coil of flesh, within the glistening tissue, in formation beside the spelling of the word r e m e m b e r. a valuable member of your mind, filed to be brought forward as needed. Now needed.  

A man is seriously ill.  He has been diagnosed with a life threatening disease.  His brother brings him to a physician who recommends a nearby hospital. The hospital is famous for outcomes of recovery and the restoration of health. The man’s brother delivers him to...

I learn from past centuries. And why not? They knew a lot. I am not bigoted, not against the dead, not against quickless bodies, nor quick-witted minds soaked with unfamiliar alphabets. The long gone teachers still teach; Ovid -  things are and are not what they seem,...

All these years I have lasted. ephemeral seconds fleeting minutes transitory hours temporary days short months brief years    From the beginning I was not meant to last. Yet, sun up and sundown, day in and day out, year after year, I lasted. Now in these last years, I...