Hitch-hiked along the East Coast 1968-70
multiple times
Picked up by mini-buses
marijuana high times
Dated a filthy rich gal whose 1971-72
backyard was Hamilton College
We climaxed every night, alright
but didn’t gain any knowledge
Pledged the fraternity where 1969
‘Animal House’ was shot
Quit the very next morning
learned to quit a lot
Got a D- in a Shakespeare class 1971
blamed it on the professor
Retook the same course
almost got an F from his successor…
They say the best teacher is Experience
~ I must have heard ‘Experiments’
_______________________________________________________
This is all completely true, so help me - gulp - G-d!!
"What I have Learned about Broken Promises is Priceless." By Poet
As a young child,
friends would make a promise.
They would break their word,
followed by hurt.
The dating world was famous for this trick,
as boys loved to break their promise.
Did it make them feel powerful?
Maybe!
My dad was a very wise person,
he never made many promises.
Guess he knew the pain hiding behind words,
words that were unkept are friends with lies.
He would say,
we will see or maybe.
I knew if he had made me a promise,
it was guaranteed to be done.
So glad this lesson was learned as a child,
thanks dad.
You didn’t hand me boxes wrapped in bows,
Or silver trinkets bought upon a whim.
Instead, you took me where the river flows,
And taught me wealth is found in catching bream.
You gave the gift of a persistent mind—
To cast the line again, to watch, to wait.
To look beneath the surface and to find
That patience is its own rewarding state.
I became a treasure hunter of the human heart,
You taught me the value of a quiet space.
You taught me how to pull the world apart,
And to find the gold in every simple place.
The rush of water, and a bending reed,
The stillness of a humid afternoon—
You showed me that the only things we need
Are found beneath the sun and silver moon.
So I will let the others keep their fragile things,
Their fleeting goods that tarnish on the shelf.
I have the wealth that only nature brings,
And all the truths you taught me of myself.
the girl who learned
she tiptoed in an out
unnoticed by the elders
they had no idea
she was soaking up their knowledge
spied upon by an enthusiastic learner
a lifelong learner
the woman who would learn ancestral norms
that would elevate her to the highest power in the land
I learned how to shrink
from people who took up too much space,
how to apologise
for things that were never mine,
how to swallow words
until they turned into something bitter
and permanent.
You called it attitude
every time I tried to speak,
called it too much
every time I felt anything.
So I made myself smaller,
quieter,
easier to ignore,
until even I
could not find myself.
You were comfortable
with my silence.
But something stayed—
something sharp.
It watched,
it waited,
it remembered
every time I was dismissed,
every time I was rewritten,
every time I was told
to be less.
And now,
I am not interested
in being understood.
I am interested
in being done—
done shrinking,
done softening,
done carrying
what was never mine.
You can call it anger.
I call it
the first honest thing
I have ever felt.
is that movies end
and fathers
seldom
come home.
Life is longer
and Louisa May Alcott
knew that.
She never married
or had children.
Yet few know that,
or how she edited
her novel for publication.
I am Jo.
She was Jo,
at least I can
assume as much.
Dr. Seuss chose
to be known as such,
not Theodor Seuss Giesel,
an author who never had
children
and led a less than happy,
'Cat in the Hat'
smiling and balancing
impossible life.
"You have 'em,
and I'll entertain 'em."
Welcome to life
outside the stories.
It’s been said that love is natural and, hate is learned.
But I see it differently.
Hate is the easy one,
popular, contagious, taught in whispers and shouts.
It grows wild in the mind,
distorting truth at every turn,
a maze that traps those who stop questioning it.
Love though ,
love is the lesson.
Love takes awareness, honesty, risk.
It asks you to step beyond fear,
to see beauty in every soul,
even when the world teaches division.
If love came naturally,
hate wouldn’t stand a chance.
Because once you’ve truly been touched by love,
you begin accepting what you don’t yet understand
and understanding what you once refused to accept.
That’s why I speak on hate,
not to spread it,
but to expose it.
Awareness is armor.
Lessons learned
From our Father
We had learned
Many years ago
When we had our confirmation
We had been only a
Teenager
Back then
Also, our Father had
Thought us to pray
And we had prayed together
With our Father
Also, we had prayed for each other
Many years ago
I was in the air, thinking
I had left all the pain behind,
thinking
I had all the happiness
I could get in the world.
I spent my life
calling someone else’s name
when I was in trouble,
all my life
screaming someone else’s name,
believing that if I did bad,
he would talk to me.
I spent all of my life thinking
that I had done several things right
because I had always stepped inside the line,
never—never—
caught out of the line.
A set of rules
I was given to follow,
and indeed, I did.
At the time, a rule-set book.
I swam.
I swam deeper into my mind,
understanding what it could really achieve,
and I did.
Every time I got to learn a new thing,
and a way to criticize others
who were not following my words
and those rules,
I swam deeper.
Soon that pond became a lake,
and that lake became a sea,
and that sea became an ocean—
the largest ocean.
I kept swimming deeper and deeper.
Every time, I obeyed it.
But when I got the chance to fly,
I forgot.
I never trained for this.
I only know
how to swim
inside my mind.
Where God Learned Hands
Because the heavens could not bend to every cry,
They shaped a pair of hands that never learned to fly.
So God grew nearer by departing, flesh and bone,
And called that nearness Mother, warm as home.
She waits where clocks grow tired of counting days,
Feeds time with breath, and names our fear by name.
Her love is not a sermon taught to stay,
But law made milk, and mercy taught to weigh.
When gods grow tall and distant in their light,
She kneels the dark and keeps the child in sight.
If prayer must walk, it learns her patient art,
To carry heaven quietly in the heart.
You heard of the snowman.
I'm the birdman ready to face january.
I won't freeze this year.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 1st place 2025
Added 'apricity' to my vocabulary.
The kiss of sunshine on winter days.
Learn something new every day.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
Never argue with a narcissist. You will never win.
You are better off playing chess with a filthy pigeon.
Never argue with a narcissist, even when you are in the right.
They will twist your words around and try to start a fight.
Never argue with a narcissist, it isn't worth the stress.
They will turn around and blame you when they are the ones
who made the mess.
When they know you see through them, they will fear exposure.
That is when they dump you, don't try to seek closure.
Never underestimate what goes on in their sick twisted brain.
They will lie and gaslight you and make you think you are insane.
Don't confront their bad behavior, I know this may seem hard.
Don't show the hurt and anger you feel about their discard.
Never give your narcissist, your precious time of day.
The only way you will win with them is to just not play.
They will never take accountability, so please take my advice.
If you play stupid games with a narcissist, you win a stupid prize.
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