HAIKU

Five syllables first,



Seven in the second line

Then finish with five.




It draws a picture

In the mind of the reader

Etching on the brain




Haiku, like a play

Opens, develops, resolves

All in just three lines




Haiku speaks a truth

That e'er was, but hasn't been

Said that way till now




The lowly Haiku

Aims to say something profound

Sometimes succeeding.




Ideas as Haiku

An interesting notion

Neat little poems




A Raw idea?

Then how do you transmit it?

Make it a Haiku




You mightn't b'lieve it...

Ain't nuthin' can't be expressed

In a Haiku po'm.




SOME HAIKUS

"My God I can fly!

Not only that, I can sing!"

Chirped the baby bird




The ground is soaking wet

Robins are searching for food

Worms wriggle for holes




Grind up all the skins

Mix with seeds on the feeder

Birds will be thankful




Birds eat just enough

From the feeder, then fly off

(More to life than food!)




If "this" should happen,

Then "that" must take place - or not

- Depends on viewpoint




Living to old age

We reflect on our choices

And how we survived them




In your senior years

Try to remain relevant

Do something that counts




Into our old age

Just remaining relevant

Will suffice, thank you




It is important

To do something at which you

Can be constructive




Obsessive regrets

Forget 'em, toss 'em away

Think of what's to come




Dwelling on regrets?

Forget traumas of the past

Work on tomorrow




Is that all there was?

I tasted all the flavors

Settled on none




Successful people

Make a statement to the world:

"I have been here, once."




We live forever

Ne'er-do-wells like us, because

We know survival.




Eternal pursuit:

"Liberative clarity"

Unattainable...




Ah, a worthy cause:

"Pursuit of enlightenment"

Endlessly distant...




Tacit agreements

Make a myth of competition

(How business conspires)




Happy to exist

We leave the competition

To the competers




Francisco Method:

Invention of our own way

No competition




Our disappointments

Make life more interesting

Than our successes




Success, who needs it,

When you can get to do lots

Of really neat stuff?




Life goes by so fast

You look back, say to yourself:

"Where did the time go?"




After all is said

You bear the scars of your life

Then Thy will be done




Human existence

Is about the learning how

Not just the doing




What then is success?

It's being happy doing

What you're doing then!

END HAIKU #2




HAIKU #3:

Not what you "become"

But what you do ev'ry day

That's what makes up life




You done everything

That you always wanted to?

Life marches onward...




One thing about life:

Once you say it, do it, live it-

No taking it back




D'ja do all the things

You wanted to at the time?

You only live once.




Life's an adventure:

Where you go and what you do

Decisions you make




A key to life is

Making the right decisions.

Wouldn't you agree?




I never went deep

Skimmed waves of experience

But was never bored.




Opportunities...

A matter of decisions

Based on good advice




Don't live to regret

All the things you could have been

Pursue all your dreams




Enough with kvetching!

Figure what you're gonna do

Tomorrow morning.




Your net life effect:

How many people did you

Help, hurt, influence?

END HAIKU #3




HAIKU #4:

One wants to matter,

To have his opinions weighed.

Otherwise, why live?




Rather than become,

Some are satisfied to do,

To play at being.




Secret of long life:

Remaining relevant, no?

("No shit, Dick Tracy.")




To live forever

It's prudent to plan ahead.

First comes the desire...




Embrace the good life

Eschew the unhealthy one

Down! Down, bad habits!




Subtract body parts

Dispense with extrania

That served only youth




Appreciation

E'en of the ridiculous

Develop that now




Here's the solution

To the rising food prices:

Eat less! (Look better!)




Out my bay window

Life passes by ev'ry day

I am a witness




Live your life as though

You're gonna die tomorrow

Guess what, you won't. Hah!




Don't care anymore

Done had my fun, ready to die

Burn me up, toss me.




What on earth saved me?

'Twas my imagination

Which could see beyond...




We can't imagine

Our spirits die when we do,

Thus Heaven, Hell, or...




One's inner mind says:

"Go where the spirit leads you"

That's where you end up




END HAIKU #4

NEXT

HAIKU #5:




Deal with the present

Tomorrow's another day

Que sera, sera.




Avoid Alzheimers

Do Not think about the past

Anyway, it's gone




To have relevance

Is the purpose of one's life

No matter to whom




Music is changing

Not just the way it's published

But how it's approached




(Music's a long trip

To destinations at which

You never arrive.)




(The pleasure is in 

The journey and what you meet

Along its highway)




Music is a toy

Drum, horn, flute, lute, Toodle-loo

That's why we "play" it




Music is notions

Presentations of colors

To welcoming ears




Music's all habits

The teaching/learning, that is;

We play what we learn




Not what we think, tho

Nor even what we invent

Or can imagine




First you plant the root

Do re mi fa so la ti

Do completes the scale




Maybe my function

Is just showing that it's fun

Playing Piano




Music is my friend

One that never deserts me

Counterpoint to life




Music is our friend.

Where would we be without song?

Stuck in monotone.




When you play music

You are creating beauty

In the listeners' souls




The essence of Jazz:

Playing what occurs to you

Pulled along by sound.




What! no discipline?

(Isn't that the idea

Improvising Jazz?)




Chords: Merry notions,

Interesting enigmas

You solve in your ear




Using the 9th chord

(Third, fifth, flatted seventh, ninth)

There are no wrong notes




Remember the chords

Signature, accidentals

The key at the time




We weren't allowed

Even to answer the phone

We were practicing




I am sorry but

Mila's not available

She is practicing




Now she lives the dream

Of all of us. Practicing

Led to something grand!




Mila surely is

The grandchild I never had

Likely won't either.




"Help Wanted right now!

Be a singer who performs

As if you're naked"




A tune written to

An Original Haiku

Might even charm birds.




Haiku idea!

Could you paint an abstraction

Representing that?




Haiku dreams, alas

Areas that ain't been touched

In this way before




Henry Francisco

Became Henry John Henry

At the age of eight




Henry Francisco

Given the name of a clown

Henceforth played the role




Wherever he went

The center of attention

Swung over to him




I choose what I want.

I don't let fate interfere.

I go where I go.




Being someone else

Became my fate at age nine

Henry Francisco




Henry Francisco

Played with the cards he was dealt:

"Henry John Henry"




He became unmoored

He didn't know who he was

He lost the "I am"




He had to go be

Someone else who wasn't he

In a brand new place




A place full of kids

Whose mothers knew his secret

Unbeknownst to him




So he played the role

Did some real method acting

Even fooled himself




He played with the kids

You wer'n't allowed to play with

Then he became one




He was no fool, yet

He did all the foolish things

One could think of, then.




He's not who he was.

Before... He was someone else;

But now he makes do.




He's an imposter

Poseur more than an actor

Ever playing himself




He fancied himself

As something he wasn't

A real acting job




We all have stories

Of where we went, what we did

When we're growing old




"Partners in crime," they

Actor and insanity

One must BE t'other




Never really aimed

To do anything beyond

Having a good time




Easy to say now

By ego-analysis

Looking back on then




All the Franciscos

Were never the persisters

We are the doers




Raised on comic books

To seem the same but better

One cheated a bit




Ne'er wanted to do

Just one thing all of the time

Too much like the store




"I wanna be that

But only for the nonce

Then on to diff'rent."




What would you expect

From someone who was raised up

Reading funnybooks




My friends called my pop

Old philosopher Henry

I just called him Dad




Once upon a time

On Erie's West 18th Street

Henry's Ice Cream Store




Henry's Ice Cream Bar

Our Dad made deliciousness

From what he was left




Lesson to go by:

Fun is serious business

Not frivolity.




Born on 18th Street

Raised on comics and ice cream

Bound for fantasy




'Sbeen life on the edge

Goin' Doin' Bein' things

I never should've"




To be serious

About some frivolities...

No Peccadillo




END HAIKU #5

NEXT

HAIKU #6:




Go try ev'rything

In moderation of course;

Have all of the fun.




Ah, things I did wrong

I can't begin to count

But still I survived




That thing you MUST do...

When it's not fun anymore

Go do something else.




Performing is like

Getting naked in public

With all your clothes on




Store it on a hook?

Don't hang it in the same spot

Lest you wear a hole.




Words that make you fat:

"It does the thinking for you"

Relax, chill out, bloat.




Getting fat's easy

You don't have to work at it,

Just relax, consume.




Dance it off, Baby,

Put your body to the test.

Jiggle it, and strut.




Excuses abound

Like "I have a weight problem."

You're human, solve it!




A Black/White word deal:

You eschew the "MF" word

We'll drop the "N" word




Go be the dreamer

Thinking things that ain't been thunk

Till they come to mind




The mind is secret

Don't have to say what you think

(But watch what you say)




You! Do ev'rything

But whoa! Nothing to excess

To live a long time




END HAIKU #6

NEXT

HAIKU #7:




The basic pleasures

Not so simple anymore

Are they "right for you?"




Live it up, my friends,

Enjoy all of the pleasures,

But moderately.




"Did you live a life

That really meant anything?"

Said the father's voice




D'ja do anything

We might think significant?

Something inventive?




Life for some is just

A series of adventures,

Nothing more, or less.




Merrily, Merrily,

Merrily, Merrily,

Life is but a dream.




My final statement:

"Having sampled ev'rything

I prepare to die"




Burned all my bridges:

Now I be ready to die

Except that I'm not...




Burn all your bridges

There is no place to go but

Into the unknown




You look back and think

"Why didn't I do this, that?"

All in the past. So...




Look at it this way:

Life's a vacation from death

Ere was, and after...




When a baby's born

I plan to inhabit it

Live once more again




Did Ev'rything wrong

But I managed to survive

All of my mistakes.




Made ev'ry mistake

I possibly could have made

But hey, I'm still here.




We learn from mistakes

Whether they be ours or theirs

If we're sensible.




The mistakes we made

Are all in the distant past.

Now comes the future.




END HAIKU #7

NEXT

HAIKU #8:




The past was the past.

The present is the present.

The future will be.




The older one gets

The more relative the term

"Happiness" becomes




Henry just wanted

To be an artist,

Not a mover or shaker




If you're artistic

"Friends" can be a waste of time.

Your Buddy's your art.




Mom and Dad were right

So-called friends do nothing but

Waste the artist's time




To the true Artist

All his artistic thinking

Is "outside the box."




Art thou too decent

Unprepared to encounter

Big bad artsy worlds?




Bad dreams pursue us

Magnifying our mistakes

Make our lives messy




Tortured by his dreams

He greets the morning gladly

Respite into life




Born on Eighteenth Street

In back of an ice cream store

Bound for tasty life




I grew up in an

Ice Cream Store, readin' comics

Life's a lotta fun




Ice Cream Store childhood

Flavor: "You can't be ser'ious"

Life is but a toy




Read "Crime Does Not Pay"

That could lead one anywhere...

Life's a comic book




Comic Book people

At heart actors, not thinkers

Thus their influence




We had it all, Yo,

Discipline wasn't in our

Vocabulary




Do lunch at Henry's

Soup du jour with home made bread

Plenty of water




Nobody likes me

Everybody hates me

Guess I'll go play tunes




Drugs are the reward.

Yours after you've clawed and scratched

To that pinnacle.




Drugs are not the fuel

They propel only downward

Away from the top




Enough with kvetching

Figure what you're gonna do

Tomorrow morning.




When they stop list'ning

Then you stop talking to them.

Honto Desu! Is true!




Writing is naught but

Slowing down readers' thinking

To the speed of pen




END HAIKU #8

NEXT

HAIKU #9: Savoritz 4-Template




The older you get

The less you use teeth to smile

The more just to chew




Do the catalogue

You always dreamed of doing

We pass here but once




Each stage in your life

Is a brand-new adventure

A re-beginning




END HAIKU #9a

NEXT

HAIKU #10:




Music is magic

Transporting the agile mind

To remembered times




The melodic knack

Isn't realized until

Harmony chimes in.




Did I brush my teeth

Or only think about it?

Hard to remember...




Can't remember to...

Forget if I ever did...

Doesn't matter though...




There comes a point when

Mechanisms to survive

Take up one's whole life




All the pills and soaks

Kill you slow with therapy

Use up your




le day




You fin'lly get life

Reduced to its essentials

Then you up and die




Ev'rythings the same

Except moreso it would seem

When you toke a joint




No one knows the thoughts

You have when you fantasize

Go ahead, think them




Go pursue a dream

Foolishness tho' that may be

Till the day you die




You pursue a dream

Seldom knowing what it is

Or where it will lead




Life, alas, is but

A series of adventures

Good, bad, int'resting




The Storyville Stage

Port Whitman monologists

Original thought




In The Storyville

Songs are sung, acts are performed

Fictive drama rules!




"Watch me! Now watch me!"

People don't come here to talk

They come to listen




They have to assume

We have something to say

Untouched areas




So the world awaits

What are we gonna decide?

Is it us, or them?




The "End Of The World"

Wasn't the demise of earth

But of things we knew.




It's the day after

The "End Of The World" - Oh Good!

Now we can start new.




Henry's Ice Cream Bar

Wasn't the demise of earth

But of things we knew




We perform a play

Then take up a collection

With long-handled cups




A coffee refuge

Come lunch to live theatre

At Henry's Ice Cream




Famous soups and bread

Lunch with TV monitors

Comedy, drama...




At Henry's Ice Cream

Old philosophers hold forth

Like Santa, year 'round




I got bent to shape

An attitude adjustment

At Henry's Ice Cream




Re-do Port Whitman

With a casino down there

Play with play money




Not "Hard Work" people

We choose our occupation

To suit our bodies




Learn something new, then

See if you can make money

Doing it. That's fun.




END HAIKU #10

NEXT

HAIKU #11:




When work's to be done

You can make anything fun

Finding Better Ways




Seek the Better Way.

There's ever room to improve

Ev'rything we do




Life's an adventure

So don't let it pass you by

Without sampling it




Don't let growing old

Remind you of all the things

You didn't become




The future looms, but

How does one forget the past

And live in the now?




Don't blame Mom and Dad.

Under their circumstances

They did what they could.




As a melody

Passes thru your consciousness

Life goes thru us all




Each song's a dream that

At the whim of the singer

The audience shares.




Mister Henry plays

The American Songbook

The Bent Note Cafe




Melody, harmony,

Have limits.

Bass and rhythm Go anywhere.




What happened to God?

It seems He's abandoned us

Or us faith in Him




Really, how could have

An entity created

All we know exists?




God is but Ideal

Yet, "He"'s been represented

As an Entity




God is but Ideal

Thus to "Him" is ascribed all

We can't comprehend




END HAIKU #11

NEXT

HAIKU #12:




There's no Jehovah

No writer of Holy Books

Except by man's hand




Nor is there a God

Creator of Heaven and Earth

We simply became




A spirit exists

Some may even call a God

Connecting us all




Right there in my mind

God's a spirit after all

And here's what He says...




There's but a spirit

A taskmaster that makes us

More of what we are




God's word, continued

The new bible in Haiku

Rhythms, structure, thought




God has many Realms

Thus only a limited

Speck of time for yours




I am sent by God

To deliver His message

Unto the faithful




Time, then, is progress

Or regress, no standing still

Go save your own world




Believe in spirits

Then they'll surely come to you

Some time in your dreams




Millions of years old

Earth from a ball of clay formed

Grows, outlives us all




"Ve vill take over

Ze whole vorldt!" Seriously

Someone must play God!




Que era era

Que esta, por ahora

Que sera sera




What was once was then

What is now surely exists

What will be will be




Write down a poem

Say something significant

So we remember




Raise up a child

Who'll go out and make a mark

That'll mean something




Write down a word

That'll pierce the shell we've built

Then make us act out




The saddest thing is

Knowing that you're capable

But didn't do it




Hear the backup beep

Truck a'coming up the road

To collect your trash




When I lose my stride

Ceasing then, to be useful

Death Bienvenido!




When you realize

You don't "matter" anymore,

Then it's time to go.




Life fades, disappears

Like your breath on a window

When you turn away




You get to an age

When it seems your children think

"Hurry up and die."




When you realize

You're no use to anyone

Then you welcome death




When you're dead, you're gone

Where you go, nobody knows

Except those who went




Depressed with your life?

That's no reason to end it...

Just get a new life.




When dead is better

Than living the life you do

Then snuff it. Or change...




Open up a bar

"The Rehearsal" - Live upstairs

Actors, tryouts, plays...




Pure theatre:

Either they come or they don't

(Hookers know the gig)




Behold life's drama:

Comedy, tragedy, farce,

Then final curtain.




Actors by nature

Aren't afraid to indulge

That's just what they do




The Director is

An "Other self" to he who

Would perform well.




You're a captive

Waiting on "Hold" for someone

Who advertises.




Advertisers bray

Anything they want to say

On TV with cash




They are just actors

Yet we buy what they portray

In the TV ads




We're being enticed

To waste away our spare time

Watching TV shows




Saturday Nite Live:

Ordinary people just

Trying on funny




See if you can go

Without the television

For one week only




Politicians say

Just what they want us to fear

To get elected.




Money's the poison

With which our democracy

Is killing itself




Do we care what is,

Or is our only int'rest

What would seem to be?




Done been ev'ry place

Did it all before,

And now I be ready to die.




So if one of yours

Dies by radical Islam

Go kill one of theirs?




Bordellos, alas

Rob you of your illusions

Better dream at home




You are but a place

In a lifetime full of fun

Now but a mem'ry




It's all about fun

Of which life is a barrel

If you play it right.




Let's be serious

Are you havin' any fun?

Lucky, your work is...




Think on tomorrow

Yesterday is catching up

Bound to overtake




Hung with delinquents

Attracted by the bad parts

Of the good boys too




Bummed because she left?

Think of her taking a shit

Perishes the thought




Unisex bathroom

Where to leave the toilet seat?

Still down, boys. Sorry.




My teeth have lasted

Through yet another dinner

Aging Carefully




Formerly myself

I now grow old with caution

New aura daily




With luck one's age

Becomes justification

Of what went before.




People just up and die

Because they hate being old

"Just get on with it."




Oh how we boogied

When we were just teenagers!

We still do, up here.




Tax e-Mails one cent

For ev'ry one we open

Build trans-monorails




Gaming the system

Can't lead to anything good

Unless you beat it




Lose at ev'rything

There's something to be said for

Living a life of fun




Life's short; no matter.

Out! Responsibility

Enter me, laughing




A life of losing

But with other fields to plow

E'er looking ahead




Music's my buddy

One that never deserts me

Counterpoint to life




Music is my friend

Ever there when it's needed

To elevate me




Jazz is resolving

Starting out on the "wrong" note

Ending with a song




Pssst! Music Secret:

Let the melody go where

It wants to go.




Music Essential:

Inevitability

Or it languishes




Mas que el todo

Melody, rhythm, tempo

La! Resolution!




Lo! laugh as you dance

Face moving to the music

Along with your form




Tells it like it is

His songs are about himself

Dances while he sings




When your dreams, alas

Exceed your abilities

Express them as Art.




When you make it known

You expect apologies

They're always grudging




Gross expectations:

Overtures to suicide

When they come to naught




Insanity comes

Before suicide, I'm told.

(Regrettably so)




Suicide snuffs life

To a distant dimension

You could find right here




I pretend I'm sane

But deep down I know I'm nuts

(Self-delusional)




With "Pardonnez moi"

He bolted headlong through life

But to fade away...




"But wait a minute...

My bridges aren't all burned yet.

I can't die right now."




One life's all you get

To do or be what you will.

Make the most of it.




The Road to Success

Is littered with distractions

Disguised as shortcuts




But beware of all

That smack of anything but

Hewing to the line.




Focus on the goal,

Let it not out of your sight

Lest it disappear...




You gave me the kiss

That stoked a furnace within,

Igniting new coals




Kisses not yet felt

The burn of youthful passion;

Dormant, innocent...




Suddenly alive,

Aware of fresh connections -

Dances to be done




In a dimension

Yet untried but fraught with hope

Of life sublime




At some future time

With someone not unlike the

Giver of that kiss.




The better mousetrap

Attracts the world to your door

Once you invent it...




Build better mousetraps,

Soon enough, the world will beat

Pathways to your door




Heaven is Music

Deathless tunes that float about

Carrying our souls




When bodies wear out

Souls just up and take over

Makes sense, doesn't it?




You may have enough

Yet want more, deserve more, but

Enough is plenty.




This is my heaven:

Tunes that float in the ether

My God is Music.




Are you with The Spirit?

Do you seek The Better Way?

Be you your Ideal?




If a God exists

T'would likely be in spirit.

(Plausible then, eh?)




Our construct of God

Keeps our world in a balance

Sans which we perish




Patiently waiting,

Death claims us all, regardless.

No way to cheat it.




Death is gonna come.

Live your next moments as if

It were imminent




Once again she plays

The penultimate victim

Snug up against death.




When dying in bed

What is there to enjoy but

Being center stage




On the contrary

Death can be a happy time-

"I'm taking a trip!"




"I'm leaving this life

On to something different.

(Might well be better)"




Imagination

Tells me good things lie ahead

Beyond the rainbow.




My loving sister

I'll remember you always.

Your loving brother.




Two of us exist

One lives in our fantasies

Another in life




It doesn't matter

If your dreams never come true.

Dream them anyway.




Are You the dreamer

Whose dreams refuse to come true?

Why should they? They're DREAMS! (Duh!)




Flashes of brilliance:

Tale of a life of promise,

Unfortunately




A girl that I loved

Ran off with a sailor boy

Bon voyage, ma cher.




Whatever happened

To my old girlfriend Lola?

The world swallowed her




You got the girl

Of all of our dreams.

Resist the temptation to gloat.




We may not be one

But I am with you always

Somewhere in my mind




Don't think of me, fine.

I remember ev'rything

For the two of us




That was the game then

But now it's over, "the past"

Can't we just be friends?




Ev'ry love I had

Was the sole love of my life

For the time being




It sure must be nice

To have someone who

Thinks about you ev'ry day




Someone who'll love you

And remember things for you:

Growing old happy




Once a year I'd like

My Valentine to be mine

No one else's, see?




Don't think of me, fine;

I remember ev'rything

You prob'ly forgot




The secretary

Trolling to land Mister Right

SO nineteen-fifties...




High School and College

We're all destined for greatness

But it's elusive




Setbacks come and go,

Nothing is career-ending;

You just find a way...




Is what you're doing

Really, truly int'resting

Or is it just work?




A little Business

At which you don't make a lot

But you pay your bills




One you run yourself

No one tells you what to do

Make your own mistakes




Little tweedy signs

Are SO over, I mean Whew!

Express your business




Why would I want to

Become anything other

Than what I am now?




Desde la boca

Tutti e si facile

Miraculosa!




Coming from the mouth

Ev'rything's easy as pie

Miracles are spoke!




On the tree of life

We prune the branches early

Who'd reach to the sky




But branches unpruned

Spread to envelop the earth

Reaching out, not up




The object of all Art:

Produce something noteable

Where there was nothing




"In a dream I saw

A city invincible"

What was that city?




Municipal hoax!

Storyville section of town

Where stories are told




City on the lake

Port Whitman's not the real world

But a place apart




Port Whitman virus

Catch it in your heart, and it

Crawls up to your brain




It isn't death we fear

But losing life

No matter its condition




You who died so young

Look at all the fun you missed

By not being here




The mind is a tube

Through which ideas pass

And are re-formed




It takes a picture

Rearranges it and then

Out comes something new




Really changing minds

Pointing up new directions

Only writing does




I can only hope

Something I may have written

Has some mild effect




Life in the "country"

"Shall I mow or shall I not?"

That is the question




Think up things to say

And put them down on paper

For others to read




That's Blogging, by God!

Now I can say to the world

What I've said to me




But is it valid?

Is it, oh, enlightening?

Is it important?




I can't play sad songs

Without thinking then of you

Now sad all over




But life looms ahead

No time to wallow when you've

Someone to write tunes 




Music is a toy

The most int'resting plaything

Man has yet devised




Being a writer

One can be brave, and then some

(Only ideas)




Present new ideas

In a plausible framework

To effect real change




The writer decides,

Viewing from his perspective,

Magnification




You love to read, so

Am I so poor a writer

My words don't reach you?




Life is to enjoy

Doing something that you love

Despite achievement




The accomplishers

Look down upon the funsters

From loftinesses




Superiorly

Saying "And what have you done

To improve the world?"




I never wanted

To get "good" at anything

But to do all things




Really it's their world

We inhabit currently

That needs improvement




I listened to me

Nobody else, I'm afraid

Thus ended up here




I am a body

Through which life passes now

Before moving on




I'm a lonely soul

Passing through an earthly form

Before moving on




I am a belief

Passing through a time and place

Before moving on




I am a window...

A life but seen through, alas

Before moving on




I am a blank slate

On which existence is chalked

Then I am erased




Existence: The Game,

Pitting you against the world

Hey, it's only life...




Fantasies of Sex

Better than the act itself

Abstraction triumphs




Vibrator and I

And my imagination

Release pheromones




There were girls who did

Then there were those who didn't

The boys? They all did.




With improper thoughts

And a working vibrator

Anyone can come




A good vibrator

And forbidden fantasies

Anyone can come




Can't do "sex" no more

I'm reduced to doing "friends"

Alas, fin'lly this!




The older you get

Ain't nuthin' like a good shit

Early in the day




The older you get

The more pleasure you derive

From a daily shit




A morning bouquet

The sweet smell of one's insides

Ah, to defecate!




Funny, I thought prunes

Would do the trick, but

Bananas do it better




Ain't nuthin' like it

A good shit in the mornin'

Start the day off right




Be in good shit shape

Have a movement ev'ry day

Eat right to make it




Aaah, nothing like it

A good clean healthy and large

After-breakfast shit




Can't get over her?

Just think of her wiping her ass

When you do the same




Comes a time in life

When a nice big morning shit

Flat beats an orgasm




As you grow older

You eliminate more things

Right down to living




Seriously do you

Care more about your vices

Than you do your health?




Doing exercise

Revs up your body's systems

'gainst pathology




Hmm, lemme see now

If I take this here wrong turn

Where will it lead me?




I've made some mistakes

That changed the course of my life

But then, I'm still here...




"Haikus by Henry

Francisco," who wrote them down

As he thought them up




Haiku Poetry

The medium for New Thought

Presents raw ideas




Haiku: Perfect spot

To float a new concept

Yet, but a launchpad




Got an idea?

Try seventeen syllables

That's what Haiku's for




Haikus are notions

Pure and simple ideas

Expressed verbally




Mere snippets of thought

Open, develop, conclude

In just three short lines




Aphorisms rule!

They plant a worm that wriggles

Deep into your brain




Stroke kills sector "A"

You develop sector "B"

It's a "No-brainer"




"Sonic Therapy"

Sound waves, diff'rent frequencies

For organs' ailments




To off it when you're

Running out of raison d'etre...

Easy way to go.




Dame in the parlour

Courtesan in the bedroom

Ah, the perfect wife.




I couldn't have wed

Anyone better than her

My good wife Helen




I have dipped my pen

Into assorted inkwells

To write my life's tales




Publish for Kindle

Exclusively that medium

The future of text




Don't resign yourself

To Becoming nobody

You are somebody




I spy death lurking

'Round a corner up ahead

It peeks and darts off.




When you're growing old

With advice and cash to give

Money is better




Had some this and that

Little Bits of Ev'rything

Cafeteria




Why pursue old dreams

Harking back to yesterday?

Tomorrow beckons




The past, ah, the past

The present is only now

But the past lives on...




There's something to say

For life as a wannabe:

Forever there's hope...




Just Remember this:

Heaven ain't such a bad place

Once you get to go




You don't understand dying 

Drawing your last breath

Until you do it.




I'm mediocre

But in the dreams department

I'm grand, simply grand!




What you're wishing for

Is it really what you want

Or just idle whim?




Glad you got away

You're better as my dream girl

Forever the same




Ev'rybody needs

A great lost love to dream for

Who'd see you triumph




I have more fun with you

In all of my dreams

Than I ever would in life.




Screen porches are scrims

Through which the birds cannot see

Singing, frolicing




We are like the birds

Who get to try all the seeds

Relishing their fruits




Talented blackbirds

To be able both to eat

And sing all at once




The habits of birds:

Endlessly fascinating

Barest survival




We are butterflies

Enjoying fruits of nature

Then moving on




Didn't wanna bomb,

People's lives on my conscience

Just learn how to fly




I'm a sailing ship

Dropping anchor here and there

Only to sail off




I go to churches

Cast a lot with diff'rent faiths

Keep What pearls apply




What to believe in?

Faith's a spiritual thing,

Intransferable.




I do The Lord's work

Though I've yet to profess faith

In The Creator




The Lord on a throne

Equals God as only man

Could have imagined




Listen to the voice-

Of one who speaks as God might

To bring you closer




A religion that

Won't tell you what not to do

Only what you might




Church must spread its wings

Gathering in all people

Creating a flock




All the religions

Are the world's ruination

Their dieties frauds




Nice about Winter:

The cozy feeling you get

When properly dressed




Oft' it's easier

To endure the bitter cold

Than to light the fire




I'm a fire starter

Kindling blazes where I can

Heating up battles




Remnants of winter:

Dirty snow, deep potholes, mud

Spring is hovering




Fire burns in the yard

Goodbye Christmas, glittered tree

Hello new annum




Tall maples bloom

Big trees think the warm be spring

But not fooled for long




Man picks up some sticks

Bluebird scouts for last year's house

Spring creeps in, arrives




Yard birds, their homes gone

React in shock, cheeping LOUD.

The trees now beckon.




Hawk drifts on the breeze

Just has to extend his wings

Looking for a meal




I'm on vacation

Away from cares of the day

But I remain here




I stay where I am

But my mind goes where I'm not

To another sphere




My fountains of youth:

Tunes, exercise, attitude

Easy on strong drink




Got what I wanted

'Twas a taste of ev'rything

Van, choc, strawberry




Bikers are like birds

Fly here, there, hang out some, sing,

Fin'lly scoot back home




Bicycle riding

Gives the illusion of youth

Via naked speed.




Illusions of youth

Are granted you while playing

Music instruments




Be a kid again.

Get up on a bicycle,

A new perspective.




Get a bicycle

Bike to the shopping center

It'll change your life




Don't deprive yourself

Of the good things of your life

(...in moderation)




Where goeth the time?

Looking back it "flew so fast..."

Yet ahead it drags




Life has not the time

For doing all I want to

Though I keep trying




Remember the times

You thought you were getting so old

But you were so young?




The force of habit:

Ev'rything is ritual

When you're growing old




A slip in your sleep

You twitch to keep from falling

Tho' you're lying down!




Old contemplations

Are nothing but once-new pants

Out of which we've grown




Cars rushing to work

I hear them as I slumber

In my nice warm bed




Burn my body up

My ashes to an hourglass

Useful forever




The world accepts you

As you represent yourself

Until you prove them wrong.




You are what you are.

Sure it's no use pretending

To be what you're not.




I had to pretend

I was not Italian

(In truth, I wasn't)




You are the winners,

The ones who arrive there last

At the door of death.




Live the life you live

Then get the death you deserve

Poetic justice




Go 'long with the flow

Specialize in faking it,

Extemporizing




When a sibling dies

We're rudely reminded of

Our mortality




Home is a sculpture

We make by living in it

Our house is our life




A moment you'll know

Is that which comes to us all

When you say "I'm dead."




Life just fades away

Slips like a drowning victim

Underneath the waves




Were it only true...

"Pen is mightier than sword"

World would be won now.




Women run the world

Their weapons gossip, malice

Much better than guns




It might be nicer

Living how women want to

'stead of how men do




True action heroes

Do what no one else can do

In their place and time




Heroes of the world

Trade in the lives of others

And come out ahead.




To the warrior

"All wars are "necessary"

(Except those you lose)




We could aw pway "Wi"

In a "Wi" waw wif Iwan

Vewy popuwaw




Sample everything

Sans responsibility

(The Artistic Life)




Dilettantes survive

"Always something to pursue"

Needing yet more time.




I need someone to

Be all about me, but you

Are all about you




I'm like a flat rock

Skipping atop a smooth pond

Till I expire, sink.




It's only life, cher

Whatever happens happens

After that, you die.




The ways to compete:

Be bigger, faster, more, less

Or else be diff'rent.




If you want to win, work.

But if you only want to play,

That's okay. 




Unwritten agreements:

"We compete on 'services'"

(But not on price).




Cyberspace, alas

What we leave there of ourselves

Is our afterlife.




When you play music

The listeners' emotions

Succumb to your art




Music exists but

In the minds of composers

And those who listen.




The rest is paper,

Notes, fingers, lips, instruments

Tools of transmittal.




Oh sure, on the air,

And then in the mind of God

Who is e'er list'ning.




Melody's trav'lin'

It's always goin' someplace

Just can't settle down.




I'm a melody

Leading you 'long by the ears

With songs for the nonce




Music that survives

Is the music that gets played

Or... oblivion




Don't be restricted

To the melodies of life

Live its rhythms too.




Music is messy

Not pedantic, not exact

Fin'lly resolute




Music is a hike

A wandering in the woods

Without returning.




Music is escape

A world that is only mine

Harmony possessed.




In improvising

Your mind must figure out where...

And go there right now!




Piano is a toy

Play it right now if you choose

Just push the right keys.




Touch the piano, George

Feel the sounds that you can't hear

To listen again




Your mind has got to

Figure out where you're going

And go there right now




Poetry's simply

Talking in rhythm n'est ce pas?

Just keepin' the beat.




Oreo our outside cat

Slept on the roof by the chimney

Then in the days, she'd soak up some rays

You'd think she was sunning in Bimini




Oreo our cat

Black and white, died yesterday

Ma feline amour.




Sun rises on dog,

Warmth shifts, dog moves, no dummy,

Sleepin' in the sun.




When you wipe your arse

Do you smell your body's fruit?

Dogs do, why not you?




We get old, we stink

It's all part of the process

So get used to it




Olfact'ry pleasure

Nothing can beat the odor

Of one's body gas




Dog sits at table

Farts loudly, other dogs sniff

Catching the fragrance




Dogs weave scent to scent

Checking the territory

Olfactorily




Bees sting you if you're

Confrontational. Be nice,

They'll leave you alone.




When they stop list'ning

Then you stop talking to them.

Honto Desu! It's true!




In my fam'ly we're

Used to interfering, but

If you like I'll stop.




Don't you ever need

To feel intimately with

Someone that's not you?




The Nature of God:

Circle's Center Ev'rywhere

Circumf'rence Nowhere.




God is a franchise

Passed from clone to clone

For millions of years




Convincing new Eves

And also Adams, of course

"Divinity lives."




It lives forever

Mortality dies, alas

One "God" kept alive




By assistant Gods

Who are in on the secret

Carrying it on




How did that happen?

(Aha! They made the mistake

Of making two clones)




A long time ago

An error was committed

And two clones were made




Maybe it takes old age

To finally understand

Why you're like you are




Relentless wind

Rips the branches from the trees

Nocturnal ambush.




I close the window

So I cannot hear the storm

Destroy the rooftop.




Burn all your bridges

Then you'll have time to do all

That you want to do.




Done as many things

As I could. Not all so well

But some of them good.




One limps through his life

Altered, broken, repaired, scarred

Surviving in spite




Haunted by the past

But determined to live on

One plunges ahead




Haunted by one's life

One dreams yet of past misfires

Still hoping to win




Been around the block

A couple of times and more

Seen a few things too.




He never believed

In the traditional ways

Had to go it 'lone




Jolly old Saint Nick

Sliding down your "chimely"

Not a speck o' soot.




When you were my friend

I would bring my life to you;

Now it's brought to none.




Please forgive me, friend

Or I shall simply go die,

Be no more again.




Watching the walls now

Making sure they haven't moved,

Being reassured.




Think of a season

Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn

And a feeling too.




Sex alone is best

The thrill without committment

And dream what you want.




Weekly orgasms

Come with new technology

And those "impure thoughts."




When is the last time

You brought on an orgasm?

Tsk, Tsk, (Endorphins)




Of ev'ryone's life

Sex is a much bigger part

Than you'd imagine




Walking down the road

Enjoying the Autumn air

Winter's in the wings.




Dreams. I'm made of dreams

I've recently discovered

...Just wishing at life.




I've never been me,

But someone manufactured,

Mythical yet real.




Not enough water

Too much sewage and garbage

Too many people!




As I drift to sleep

I think another Haiku

Gone when I wake though.




I'm just a mystic

Spending life thinking thoughts

That might be of use




The leaves are blowing

Over to the neighbor's lawn

He can rake them up.




If you can't mow it

With a self-propelled walker

Then your lawn's too big




Nick Virgilio

I wonder where you are now

Heaven I suppose...




If you had to choose

Would you want "character" or...

Ingenuity?




Want to quit smoking?

Carry them around with you,

But just don't smoke 'em.




Your disappointments

May result from personal

Mistaken choices




You chose to do this,

Elected not to do that

Thus your present state




Constant media

Part of dumbing down of us

Where did quiet go?




I like my own thoughts

More than those I listen to

In the Media




Without empathy

Relationships are empty

Devoid of respect




To have a someone learn

What little you can teach is

Ultimate reward




Life is short and so

Do the things you love to do

No matter the cost




Here's the objective:

Live all the life that you can

Given its limits




Put your life on hold?

Marijuana will do it

If that's what you want...




Who you hang out with

What you try to prove to them

Determines your path




Time to start squeezin'

New routes from politicians...

"Where are we goin'?"




Give me a reason

Why I should vote FOR your guy

"Any ideas?"




The nervy sunshine

Stabs at me between the drapes

But I outsmart it




"Should have gone this way..."

However I didn't, so

On to other things...




Morning dawns and then

My ghosts come out to haunt me,

Refuse to let go




We are so blase

Witnessing catastrophes

Slowing down to gawk




I can write a check

For whatever I want now,

Since I don't want much




I am pierced through now

With stilettos of regret,

Delicious mem'ries




Everything I have

Is quite enough for me, thanks,

And mine, bless them all




I be the dreamer

Wond'ring the improbable

Before it's fathomed




I be the dreamer

Essential inhabitant

Of the world at large




Bless the curious

They shall be our salvation

By finding the way




Run after that dream

Till it gets too far ahead

Then chase another.




Burn your bridges first

Then never have to cross them

Nor find the way back




Wade into each pond,

Touch the depth but not too deep

Lest you have to swim




I aspired to be

Naught but characters in life

Thus becoming them




Life is too precious,

One cannot waste a minute;

Grab the most you can




We always succeed;

We never see ourselves fail.

Only others do.




Just hear yourself think,

You'll never see yourself do,

Nor taste of failure.




Not the end of life

But the beginning of death

Is what concerns us.




Someone is always

Barging into existence

Not leaving us be.




Life is rife with games

You play just to get along

Or don't; then you won't.




People drink all wrong

Gradually, sip by sip.

No, knock it back; stop.




Immorality:

Price gouging, obesity,

Too many children




There's morality

Or have we just forgotten?

We Capitalists




How 'bout price fixing?

Suppliers get together

Agree to soak us




Two things wrong with sports:

One: Winning over playing

Two: The pow'r of money




Ball hit with a stick

Kids' game, race to the bases

Beating the ball there




In his gradeschool days

Henry was a great pitcher

He threw the "thumb ball"




Baseball fame's secret

The Thumb Ball in or out curve

Port Whitman Sailers




Only I know me,

You may think you do, but then

Were you there when I...




While my hands still live

I'll play, if only for me

Solo audience




Deny so-called death

It only ends things here, then

Off to somewhere else




Death ain't no big deal

I been there for a little while

Welcome (when it's time)




I'm writing my own

Biography in Haiku

A poetic life




Been there done that, I

Can say that about more things

Than no matter who




Ran away from home

All the way to anywhere

Cold, hungry, came back




No regrets so far?

Well ain't you the lucky one?

But don't despair yet...




What is there to choose?

Money, fame, satisfaction?

Fun is in the chase




Happiness, talent?

Artist chases harmony.

(Perfection, alas)




Dad growing up old

Soul-dancing in jockey shorts

Son enters, stops, glares




"Dad, put some clothes on,

People will see, think you're nuts."

(Accurately so)




"Want a piece of me?

Gonna have to stand in line."

(He bumps) "Take that, girls!"




Music Exercise:

Scales in right hand, chords in left

Then switch hands, scales, chords




Talking percentage:

Which of our eye-rack johnnys

Signed to spread freedom




And what percentage

Signed up for weekend duty

And some summer camp?




Coupla weeks away

From houses, spouses, the kids?

Vacations with guns




Boys, girls, Over There

Sweating, scared, thoughtful, praying

Afgani roulette




Peeking in doorways

Then snapping back, guns a-point

To kill or be killed.




We obliterate,

Yet we charm, with candy bars

Destroy, yet befriend




Sensible people

Don't sign up to perform war

But to play at it




Rudyard Kipling's son

Old man behind him in writing

Playing war in print




Who want to be there

Want to play war like Bush did

"Mission accomplished!"




Who signed up to play

What percent to kill or die

Let's be serious




Brian Francisco

Chef who does mansions only

"Fare for your affaire"




Brian's not afraid

Life's not insurmountable

Bring it down to size




The key to stardom

Through the mansions of New York

Caterer performs




The Book of Henry

From a narrow point of view

Dealing with all things




I'm poet, know it

Ev'rything I say I say in rhyme

And also rhythm




Village Productions:

An online publication

About the arts here




Editorials,

Fiction as plausible fact

I'll be glad to write




"Wife Swap" - there's a show

Which spouse would you want to be?

Which mother too, kids?




Pope, former Nazi

Has the ultimate power

Tells you what to do




"How 'bout that, Hitler?

I am boss of ze whole vorldt!

Formula to rule!"




Ve arrre going to

(Vunce ve get reorganized)

Take over ze Vorldt!




Someone get it right

World must run as a unit

Thus be organized




Please, Death, surprise me,

Don't let me know you're coming

Just drop in some time.




Romance ev'rywhere...

Life is such a precious gift

Begging indulgence




My existence is

Living at the edge of life

Re-inventing - me.




Venture ye forth

To the edge of dizziness

But go not further




He's throwing it in

Didn't want to do it no more

'Less you invite him...




From your misjudgments

Consider the positives

After all, they count.




It's no sin to right

A trespass of omission

Rather a duty




The clouds are on fire,

Sun sets over the water

Burning up the sky.




Thank you dear Lord for

Allowing me to survive

Stupid things I've done.




Straighten out your teeth

Your smile is your calling card,

Their first impression.




He spent a whole life

Traveling down the wrong roads

Running after dreams




Being impulsive

Doing things you wouldn't do

It can change your life.




Ruled by impulses

One spends an entire lifetime

Chasing the rainbow




Raindrops pick up friends

Racing down the window pane

Toward their demise




Life in a rainstorm:

Cats and dogs and lightning too,

All intensity




The beauty of dreams

Is that you cast them yourself

All your "friends" play parts




Tears on my pillow

The love of my life's done gone

Married another




You're the very soul

Of someone once rejected

But yet, still alive




My rejecting love...

Her beauty remains the same

As we age, apart




Body looks for death

Mind is havin' too much fun

Doesn't want to go




Seventeen but once...

As it is with all ages

Yet, this one's special.




Excuse me but I

Mistook you for someone who

Might have understood.




There comes a time in

The life of ev'ry human...

Being In or Out




In can surely mean

A heap of trouble or fame

Out can mean the same.




Fame is there

Just beyond dreams

It's the transportation that's difficult




Wherever you are

You do the same things over;

Diff'rent scenery




"Drugs are the answer!"

"Ask your doctor" say the ads,

(Justifying dope).




"Get medical pot,

Disconnect reality"

Sez the evening nooz




Drugs are not the fuel

They propel only downward

Away from the top




Drugs are the reward.

Yours after you've clawed and scratched

To the pinnacle.




If you're stoned or drunk

ACT stoned or drunk. Don't pretend

You're normal, okay?




Dope may not kill you

But your reaction to things

When you do it can.




She's reduced her life

To where she can still exist

Yet smoke dope all day




When you're high on drugs

You become a crashing bore

To Ev'ryone else...




Do it without dope

Come, march your craziest self

Of your wildest dreams




Dope might be fun but

It distorts your perspective

Shows things all awry




Dermatologists:

"You are all pre-cancerous;

I can handle that."




Stuff goes right through you

When your body is prepared

You win the first round




Wait till you're ready

Then taste but moderately

Then you win again




Now it wants you back

Resist the urge to indulge

You're on a win streak




Finally Decide

Whether you really need it

Refuse. (Game, set, match).




You recall what you

Intended to remember

Forgetting the rest.




Oft times it's painful

To remember the moments

You'll never forget




You choose to breathe first

And everything after that

Till you gasp your last.




  There comes a time

In ev'ryone's ev'ry day

For the sun to shine.




Yet comes night time too

Whether you're ready or not.

It comes anyway.




Life's so fragile, or

So you find when something breaks.

But then (Surprise!) it's too late.




Losers live longer

They get to try many things

And have way more fun.




You've gotta have fun

But you have to pull your weight

Life ain't free, you know.




If you're overweight

You wear your sin, and we look

To form our judgements




We miss so much life

Doing what we choose to do

Ignoring the rest




Geometric God

Circle's center ev'rywhere

Circumf'rence nowhere




I have spent this life

Trying to be somebody.

Anybody. Me.




My life in Haiku:

"Little Henry" to old man

(Very poetic)




I'll be God (As if)

Let's have a conversation

Pretend at answers




Opportunity:

Thinking while flossing your teeth

Mining crevices




I am playing God

Where the heck is my broad brush?

Ah! The Internet!




Dot com, not dot org!

"Non-profit" is just a ruse

I pay my own way




God is Perfection

That to which we all aspire

But never achieve.




Suicide Bombers

Deal with death to get over

To the better life.




Little do they know

The better life is right here

Just beyond blind faith




Lie in a hammock

Contemplate the universe

Let the clouds roll by




Very small are we

Yet how vast the universe

Nothing has "meaning."




My time is over

Now it's up to you, you, you.

Carry on, kinder.




Henry Francisco

Age eight, suddenly became

Henry John Henry




H. John Henry's dead

Long live Henry Francisco

In word, music, thought.




Enjoy what you got

Don't worry 'bout what you ain't*

*Key to happy life




Do what you can do

Avoid the things that you can't

(Only so much time...)




Dregs of life remain

To be consumed with gusto

Till they're all used up




When it's time to die

Move on. Another life waits

Yearning to be lived.




As the years pass by

We search for some relevance

Keeping up the fight




Artistic talent

Warrior mentality

Need them both. Too bad.




A life in Haiku

In seventeen syllables

Snapshots of a time




In Haiku-gawa

Everyone speaks only

Lyrical Language




The Haiku singer

Street corner wise man in song

"Notes of wisdom here!"




It's not the doing,

What's important is the myth

Of the enjoyment




A young man, I sang

"Ma, he's making eyes at me"

In gay cabarets




Storms of life o'er time:

Raindrops racing down windows...

Inconsequential




In a dream I play

The piano at the bank

Moolah serenades




Haunted by mem'ries

I wend my way to dreamland

Behold new visions!




Who needs memory?

Now we have hard drives, thumb drives

To store our thinking




Think with the rhythm

Ravings of a lunatic

Predict the future




I just pretended

To have Alzheimer's Disease

"I don't know nuthin'"




I just didn't want

To converse with anyone

In the time I had




Exercise guru:

He's ninety seven years old

Doin' funky moves




The ultimate drug

But only while you taste it

A Henry's Ice Cream




Haikus by Henry

Just click on the link below

(Mouse-click Imagery)




Artistic people

That's what the Francisco's are

No escaping it.




Never serious

About anything in life

Except performing




We are but artists

Who don't compete, yea, we invent

Thus the world sees




Her father's talent

Coupled to mother's morals

Success is assured




Think in your medium

Form what you want to express

Make it so we feel




Why do you want "Friends?"

Only a waste of your time

If you're an artist




Learn to dig yourself

There's more there that meets the mind

Nuggets of pure gold




Feel the need to talk?

Speak to yourself. After all,

You've something to say




Hooked on "feeling good,"

But the older you get

Fewer are the ways




Two exclusive things:

Where you are, and where you're at

So how about you?




You're an old man now

Stop trying to rescue yourself

You're already saved




Stay right there Henry

You've got where you want to go

Develop that thing




Where does the time go

When you're havin' all that fun?

To posterity




Songs about money

Now you have it now you don't

(Denominators)




Here's a new riffle:

Noontime piano at the bank

(Happy money tunes)




"The financial blues

Disappear at PNC

Celebrate your dough"




In the actor's mind

Stardom is the goal somehow

Good, bad, no matter




I know how he felt

John Wilkes Booth, that assassin

No one would listen




No one would watch him

Do Hamlet or Richard III

So he shot Lincoln




Believers in God

Conclude, based on naught but faith

Taught them by others




Let us say I'm right

There is no God or Heaven.

Then what e'er's the use?




My dreams were varied

Befitting an Ice Cream Store's

Flavors and colors




My Dreams were modest

Thus achieved regularly

(Multifarious)




The Human Body

Complicated mechanism

So much can go wrong




Francisco's are inventors

We don't compete

We come up with our own




"Inappropriate

Personal relationship"

(Tsk, Tsk, cavorter)




Make friends with the bugs

It's they who will devour you

As their final meal




Government needs dough?

Why not tax the Internet:

Emails that we read




If System X is

As far as you want to go,

Does your stuff? Keep it.




To FATHER DAN:

That we all would be

Someone's favorite something,

Remembered as such...




Surely to be wished

But it's mighty elusive

Mem'ry's Hall of Fame




Whose fav'rites are we?

Or have we seen the death of

(I should say passing)




"Favorite-ism"

Replaced by that old standard

Popularity?




I s'pose that's "High School"

Yet, that's how we live again

Recalling good years,




Best times traded for

Whatever was to follow,

If and when it came.




Thus we are here now

Casting our teacher in mind

Ah! There! Up ahead...




He goes; knows the way

As he did those years ago

Our English guru.




Yea his spirit lives

In our imaginations

He sparked 'way back then.




So, we'll get there too:

Class reunions in ether -

"The Bells" ring again...

END FATHER DAN




Running from the past

Can't be such a bad idea

Keeps you in good shape




"Give your mind over"

A form of insanity:

Alzheimer's




Alzheimer's may not

Be too bad. You'll remember

A bunch of NEW things




FLASH! to Mike Henry:

The neighborhood talent show

Cleveland and his friends




You get a chance to

Show off to the neighborhood

Getting up on stage




Tell a tale 'bout you

Something you did that made me

Love you even more




He sang boy to boy

Love songs, as Cole Porter would

And he meant them too




Sang in a gay bar

Tell me, are there still gay bars?

I've lost touch, it seems




Exponentially

You can be cyber-famous

Rapid expansion




Ideas are catching

Their contagion quite rampant

Good ones OR bad ones




But will they catch on?

Against inoculations

By their opponents




Tell you a story

It kinda jumps around

It's all in Haiku




I want to write it

Before I forget it all

The way it happened




So I'll tell you things

Just as I remember them

From my pinnacle




It is all in there

The Port Whitman Times dot com

Blogspot Daily Realm




Give me a forum

Where I can express my thoughts

And I'll change your mind




Marijuana's charge:

It makes you think that you are

More of what you are




Shave and a haircut

Luxuries of days gone by

Yet not forgotten




Charlene sure could dance

But she was a big girl, see?

So she sorta "cruised."




In rhythm, mind you

Smooth, coming in to the dock

Rhythmic motorboat




No, not Italian

The Franciscos have been here

Before Jeffersons




Temptations to do

Outweigh those to read about

Till doing is o'er




Blizzard! From inside...

The image of our front door

Top to bottom snow




Have you ever read

Anything I wrote, or heard

Music that I played?




Winter is comin'

Keep your feet warm, your neck too

Ward off sickness




Father, I have sins

Too numerous to mention

Please forgive them all




When someone dies young

Somehow he stays forever

That age in our minds




In The Poet's Mind

Ev'rything becomes Haiku

Singularly plain




In your oddball way

You long to be relevant

To mean something more




Music takes you back

To places you might not want

Ever to return




Want to be happy?

Be able to get into

Whatever you do.




You can be happy

Just don't court money or fame

Enjoy what you do




Chords are merriment

Really int'resting puzzles

You solve in your ear




We know how he died

But lo, what was he thinking

As he passed away?




"I've decided that

I'm going to be insane"

Speaketh the shirker




"Fuck the whole damn world

Nobody understands me!"

So saith the fool




Do insane people

Decide to go 'round the bend?

Do they make a choice?




Ev'rything's reduced

To Haiku, in precisely

One idea per




Haiku Universe

Comprised of new ideas

Expressed in verse




School defies PC

Political Correctness

Swims against the tide




Life's a controlled mess

Like bricklaying: mortar, block,

Formed into buildings




After you build it

Step back, appreciate it

You fade away, die.




One can but wonder

At all of Hitler's power

How it went so wrong




Somehow stay playful

And your youth is well-assured.

It's all "attitude."




Whorehouse pianist

Played tunes for getting it on

Picking one's pleasures




ONLINE TO DATE 10/9/11




Straight up bebop jazz:

Cotton Candy for the ear

Pure ephemera




Composing music:

Write what e'er occurs to you

Tunes snatched from the air




Purged of life itself

Coming down to the end now

No bridge left unburned




Death comes tomorrow...

What will you have left behind?

Something substantial?




Playing piano:

Master the "thumb-under" move

Along with triads




In my dreamland I'm

A pianist and composer

Inventing new tunes




Some night I'll decide

I'm gonna stay in dream land

Bridge to the next life




To live in dreamland

Permanently is my wish

Finally achieved




If I had my choice

Here is how I'd like to die:

Go. Sleep. Don't wake up.




Did a bunch of stuff

I had no business doing

But it was there, so...




A new way to learn

How to play the piano:

Chords, not scales, to start




Not a follower

Nor inclined to leadership

Just want to be me




Here's the idea.

Just create the dialogue.

(Shouldn't be too hard)




Coupla characters

A one-act play, maybe more

Controversial though...




God creates the souls

Men and women make babies

Not at the same rate




More babies than souls

Thus our essences return

Time and time again




After each demise

Heaven's gate requires a choice:

Go in or go back




Each time St. Peter

Explains the alternatives

To new arrivals




The Lord's gatekeeper,

Helps each candidate's spirit

Make the decision




Retire to Heaven

Or wait in purgatory

For the next body




The choice is random

Or go to the end of the line

How democratic




Take a body here

Reincarnation bingo

To go live a life




You think you'd recall

Having existed before,

Ain't gonna happen




But talents survive

Make transitions to the new

Unaware of death




"Think outside the box"

Don't fear exploring unknowns

"Walk on the Wild Side!"




Play a three-note chord:

Three white keys each separate

By a single note




Improvise a tune

To the harmony you'll make

With the three-note chord




Only use white keys

At first to learn mo' better

Play a well-known song




"Hey diddle-dee-dee"

It's a doctor's life for me

Healing the body




Outlaw lobbying!

Take the money interests

Out of Washington!




Ban the Lobbyists!

Their money is ruining

The United States




The Jazz Band players

From the Darktown Strutters Hall

Made it all special




"Occupy Wall Street"

Figure things out now

The way they might be better




For Some, things couldn't

Get better; and for others

They couldn't be worse.




Modern Confucius

Is what I'm aiming to be

Making sense today




I think extra-box...

Forbidden contemplations

...See if there's logic




...Educational

Playing in between the notes

Where the wild tones lurk




"Occupy Wall Street!"

Blog to save all from ruin

Owing to Money




Please, not to worry;

I'll be back, and when I come

You'll recognize me




Erie is best viewed

In luminous retrospect

Having grown up there




Ravel's Bolero

Smooth operator's version

Seduction music




Now that you're retired

What's to do to fill the days?

Well, you make things fit




Man needs a woman

Telling him he's her hero

Not a nincompoop




The person who writes

Is not the who you are, but

The one that might be




Onomodopy:

It sounds like what it's being

Broadcasting pictures




Life's a vacation

Away from what passes for death

When bodies wear out




When's the time to live

If you don't believe in God

Or Heaven? It's now




Life's a bit of fun

Heaven's long on promises

Hell? Let's don't go there




Look at what's coming

Death is a life after all

So don't ignore it




Listen to Mahler

Take a stroll on a green screen

Fill in your own scene




Mahler Symphony

It's like a walk in the woods

Without leaving home




Demagogue wanted

To take over OWS

"Communicator"




I'm saving the world

Trouble is, most people just

Aren't int'rested







Blogged to here







The anointed ones -

Some people are just special

With "star" quality




God creates spirits

Humans create more people

Souls? Reusable




Life on 18th Street

Comic books, cowboy movies,

Ice cream and the strap




Grand old tradition -

"They're all nuts" someone said

"The Henry's, I mean."




We, the survivors

Somehow have learned the secret -

How to make it last




Don't need any pills

To counter my excesses.

I just cut them out.




Mahler's music goes

Onward, into the abyss

Without looking back




Why not create jobs

That offenders can work at

For the common good




With a chain and ball

On a little cart attached

Picking up refuse




A sign on his back

Sez: "Your tax dollars at work"

(Con... Paying you back)




Con sorting the trash

Carefully; gets time off for

"Inconsistencies"




The bargain sentence

Five years - Or ten, but bonus:

Time off for "goods found"




There's an item scale

For ounces of contraband

Found in the garbage




Sleeps out ev'ry night

Regardless of the weather

Pack upon his back




The Mork Manual

Of Marijuana healing

Only in your mind




Don't get complacent

Keep on planning all the time

Stay ahead of fate




Overblown beliefs

In personal importance

Keep our hopes alive




This is not junk mail!

One can send fifty per day

(Personal contacts)




We fight for your eyes

To get our message across

Then fire scattershot




The annual cost

Of putting someone in jail:

Forty grand, easy




There is no answer

So, then, put your depression

Into your writing




I do what I can

Not the so-called "possible"

Sure things my oeuvre




We do what we can

And if we're adventurous...

Attempt what we might




To the wherever...

Music takes you on a trip

With the composer




Goodbye everyone

Enjoy the bread, soup, music

And read the Haiku




People love to be squirted

Sprinkled with dew, as it were

The spritzer can be a he or a she,

And the victim a him or a her.




Listen here you all

I got an invitation

To the Kahkwa Club




The Erie In-group

At the Junior Assembly Ball

The deluding dance




If I'd known there was

All that sex available

I'd have been a priest




Survival's about

Figuring out what to do

When it counts the most




Didn't want to learn

But just to experience

All life's offerings




"Won't you think of me

(Song of the broken-hearted)

When I think of you?"




Of course that person

Is wishing they were with you

Far away tonight




In playing music

Ev'rything leads somewhere else

Where you're led to go




My one faithful friend

Music, always there when I

Need a companion




Fin'lly realized

It's a sad state of affairs

All I've left is me




Use your handkerchief...

Lug your snot in your pocket

(Grand old tradition)




Hope you look upon

Life as a long adventure

You a pioneer




The true creative

Won't become mired in a job

Beyond surviving




Tra la la la la

Life is a barrel of fun

Why make it serious?




First we learn to speak

Then to write it down

Why not play it in music?




Wrote movie reviews

Composed a book of music

Thousands of Haikus




Peddled daily news

Picked papers on the roadside

Fin'lly wrote my own




I was butterfly

Cio Cio San tasting flowers

Ev'rywhere in life




Rode my bicycle

All the way to Aunt Mildred's

Got hit by a car




Avoided law school

Worked IBM for a week

Never wanted wings




Learned three languages

English, Spanish, Japanese

Well enough to speak




Lived in Tokyo

New York's "Yorkville" and

Camden New Jersey




Grew up in Erie

Watched the prettiest sunsets

From a Presque Isle beach




Catcher in baseball

Did tricks off the diving board

Round ball in grade school




Became two people

Henry John Francisco first

Then H. John Henry




Peddled newspapers

Sold the Bible in Spanish

Houses in Camden




To BE something, Nah!

But to credibly play it..

Aye, there's life's good fun




Life's a bloomin' ball

And think... You only get one

Make the most of it




I got to fly jets

Wrote articles people read

And played Harold Hill




I was a Psi U

And graduated Wharton

Toured with Mask & Wig




I have played the fool

Not only that but been him

Often in my life




When you've reached the stage

Where no one wants what you have

Then it's time to go




I've been there done that

More things than anybody

Another life awaits




National ID

Cards that show us who we are

And those we are not




God creates the souls

Men and women make babies

Not at the same rate




More babies than souls

Thus our essences return

Time and time again




When at last you see

Naught but life's imperfections

Adjourn to the next




We live in an age

Of things that seem elegant

But really aren't




"Nevermore" saith

The ebony raven high

To the lowly worm




Sing a song of cheer

Christmastime comes once a year

Whew! (Glad that's over)




Prosperity looms

Ev'ry country needs its own

Yule celebration




I wanna get fame

Show all those high school skeptics

Have the final laugh




"Strive" (Umoja) - That means work hard

To learn, know, to educate

Yourself and your own




"Strive" (Umoja) - Achieve

Don't stop moving till you can't

Budge a new idea




"Strive" (Umoja) - is Unity

Celebrate the effort that you

Put forth daily




"Strive" (Umoja) - Evaluate

Look in the mirror so you'll

Be a better yourself




Dreary drizzly day

You can just see the water

Hanging in the air




From Dreary Erie

"The mistake on the lake" comes

Henry Francisco




Perfect medium

For a brand new idea

Write it down: Haiku




All have Christmas joy

Dropping our doctrinal guards

We give and take gifts




...Don't think anyone

Enjoys life more than I do

It's an ice cream cone




To bike in Winter

Dress like you're going skiing

Keeping out the cold




When too old to fuck

Cunnilingus is yummy

Tick'ling the hot point




No one's easier

To fool than a person who's

Convinced that he's right




I don't wanna be

There when I die. And it's true:

I'll be somewhere else




What is life to do?

Is it to accomplish or

To experience?




Once ego is borne

Into this world, It has to

Shoulder principles




Bad premonitions

Have an amazingly high

Accuracy rate




There's just a thin line

Separating deepest faith

From intolerance




The older I get

The less deterred I am by

Something "disgusting"




You got leftovers?

Make 'em into bread or soup

Then that's all you eat




Haiku is a seed 

Planted to grow in the mind 

Of the scrutineer.




Where there exists light

There must also be shadow

Thusly shadow, light




Wait long enough and 

Ev'rything will come to you

If you don't die first




Just the same as cars

Spirits ride on bicycles;

Maybe even more,




Pedaling away,

Making wheels go 'round and 'round

Generating life,




Which is where you'll find

Activity, existence,

Remembering, us.




Sandbox pianist

Building musical castles

Under them, tunnels




Improbables rule

In a world where dreams abide.

Reality waits.




The thing about fire

Is its ever-changing-ness

Rude pyrotechnics




Comes to a point now

I done worn out all my friends

If e'er pals they were




Mahler pushes on

Takes music to the limits

Of the Classical




After you are gone

With whom will I be able

To descend to the




Same low level of

Cynicism where we went

Betimes, and then some




Don't stop creating

Just because Cain killed Abel.

Life goes on. Death not.




Enjoyed the moments

I've got the greatest memories

Never ventured far




Alcohol? Pot? Drugs?

Take just enough so it won't

Affect your judgement




"Haikus! A quarter!"

Enter a subject and out

Comes an epigram




Make sure what you do

Is fun for you; after all

What's gonna be next?




If there is no God

Nor Heaven or afterlife

Look at all you missed




It isn't the speech

Nor even the idea

But how it's expressed




What things must you do

Completely by feel, blindly?

Pick your nose, wipe your...




Okay hero, fine;

But what are you doing now

That the war's over?




Listen to music

Melody, harmony rule

Rhythm's but adjunct




"Mister Henry, I

Ain't no dumb nigger, you know,"

Said Willie to me.




Still, muffled aspect -

The eerie quietness of snow.

Behold Wintertime!




Trying to construct

An alternate universe

(Is it playing God?)




I could never see

The point of competition

"I can piss farther..."




Any kind of drug

Makes you more of what you are

What e'er that may be...




Do you know one note

From another by hearing 

It just in your mind?




All the news that fits

Suspension of disbelief:

The Port Whitman Times




You won't want to miss

The Cathedral Prep Minstrels

Satire, Humor, Song




You can't continue

To beat yourself o'er the head

Go, be successful




Not afraid to be

The utter fool, I went and

Clowned my way thru life




Problem of old age:

How to remain relevant

Yet not chaotic




My fav'rite wrestler

Mouse Ulrich, Comedian

Of the high school mat




Alas, computers:

God's gift to the creative.

(Resume from saved point)




Life is too much fun

Why consider something so

Absurd as dying




Failure can be fun:

Plunge into something about

Which you know nothing




Living on the edge

Of discov'ry of myself -

A constant pattern




The appellation "gay"

Has a bad connotation

A swishy inference




If you can play in

The style of Stevie Wonder

You'll just have a ball




Masturbatory

Oh sure, it makes you feel good

As it breaks new ground




The minimalist

Yet the maximum use of

The allotted time




Have you by chance made

The maximum use of your

Small allotted time?




Or are you selling

In spite of what you're thinking,

What the people want?




If drugs were legal

Spelling death to the profit,

They'd do something else




Killing is lethal

Thus, death is not an option

Black Jeopardy is




U.S. ID card

All your personal info

Right in your pocket




John Henry plays God

Purports to solve the problems

Of the Universe




Organize Black Crime

Protect innocent people

Who just want to live




(Let's us manage us.)

"You mean there isn't a God?"

(That's right. Only us.)




"Supposedly, then

Who made us what we are now?"

(God's superior:




Nature, by itself,

Space, wonder of nothing-ness

And Whatever's there.)




Who ought to be God?

In "God's world," problems are solved.

"What would God do here?"




Who would speak for God

And try to do the just thing

Circumstantially?




The year: 2Q12

Port Whitman is created

Its begetter: I.




"In my mind

I saw a city invincible"

Where is that city?




I say Port Whitman

Is the place which in his mind

Walt Whitman pictured




I'm happy and proud

With offspring who are:

Teacher, writer, pianist.




Is it playing?

What is the name of the game?

(It's naming the game)




Old age orgasms

Benefit body, mind, soul

Despite what you dream




The easy way out:

Faith. The belief that some One

Created it all




You pick out the horse

You think you'll enjoy riding

To the race's end




Children of Henry's

All influenced by the store

As were our parents




Henry became John

Thus a performer in life

As well as on stage




Charles made sculpture

Something from former nothing

That seems meaningful




Lois played piano

Accompanied performers

Shows, clubs, recitals




Nancy took pictures

Beautiful shots of nature

The lake's environs




Henry's Ice Cream Bar

Wonderful thing of the past

From nothing it grew




I'm trying to say

Something that really makes sense

To an open mind




I sit at my desk

Pick my nose and scratch my head

Searching for nuggets




Whatever happened 

To your big date, the kid who

Took you to the prom?




Student, you will fall

In love with the piano

Travel down the road




It rarely comes, so

Take time for inspiration

You will be surprised!




Heaven: Behold the place

Where the good things that happened

To you here recur




I'm so creative

'times I think I'm gonna bust

So I write, I sing




Play White-key triads

Using fingers 1-3-5

Ev'ry other key




It only takes you

To gauge your relationships

Then go make judgments




Mahler symphonies:

Ev'ry emotion you could

Think of is in them




I did ev'rything

But nothing permanently

As was my desire




"Just Do It" they say.

So I did, 'most all of it.

(Great Variety!)




"Just Do It" they cried

Not win, nor make a profit,

But participate




You go down a road

Take whatever you encounter

Emerge with results




It's called "Pass it on"

Music is just a language

Turn on to the beat




Free online lessons:

About the piano, yet

Not how it's been taught




Ev'rything's grander

'neath the benign influence

Of my weekly squeeze




Notes "go" together

Chords are keys to harmony

To "hearing" music




You set the tempo–

"Rhythm Box" for the toddler

Baby changes style




I believe I'm shunned

Nobody will talk to me

Guess I'll go play tunes




WPW-FM

Celebrates Gus Mahler week

Plays his tunes only




There's a second life:

Alternate reality

Here in Port Whitman

A place that exists

Port Whitman lurks in the minds

Of its citizens

Part of elsewhere once,

But ultimately banished

For being outré




"Same old Song" cafe

Plays the same piece of music

All day, diff'rent styles




Do something useful

If not for ev'rybody,

At least somebody




The humble haiku:

Quintessential platform to

Float an idea




You have a life, but

Do you have an atelier

Where you create things?




Then... it used to be

Access anything quickly.

Now... Web ads intrude.




Remaining useful,

Purveying wisdom acquired:

The plight of old age




Here's a legacy:

Make sure you don't die slowly.

Eat right. Exercise




Obtuse people watch,

See typical lawbreakers

Caught on surveillance




TV News Programs

Create a stereotype:

Hoodie criminals




People in hoodies

Demonstrating? Then they ALL

Look like criminals




Wear your hoodie, yeah

But find another costume

To demonstrate in




My bank has a sign: No hoodies & sunglasses permitted. Stereotyping. For good reason too. Watch the evening news: Criminals surveilled in hoodies.




Babies push buttons

Playing with their rhythm cubes

Gettin' with the beat




A fraud's what I am

Pretending not to be one

Defining the act




I steal from the poor.

To justify my existence,

I give to the birds.




In order to win

You have to place yourself in

The realm of sure things




He be's the dreamer

Sometimes they even come true;

But then they might not...




Ah! You lived a life...

And what did you contribute

That others might use?




"Enjoyment" - Does it

Serve utility, or do

We owe something back?




In music, as life

One thing leads to another

In "composer" logic.




Mahler: perfect music

For any Hitler movie.

Rising above plot...




Took all the chances,

I have made all the mistakes

And paid dearly too




Music's magic hath

Charms to soothe the savage beast,

If it's listening




If I but knew then

The lot I've realized since,

Life'd be diff'rent




Happiness ain't the

Art of being well-deceived,

But of knowing truth




Ain't much in prison

But two things: Hate and Power.

Learn to deal with them




Tall dark and handsome

Always seems to get the girl.

(Hmph. First impressions)




Compromise, no less

Is the refuge of scoundrels

Who'll do anything...




The meaning of life:

Go have a whole lotta fun

And live a long time.




"Don't hurt nobody"

Especially not yourself

In your odyssey




A slave to the muse,

I stop what I'm doing now

To write down the tune




Since I'm someone else

My life has ne'er been simple.

"Becoming's" hard work!




The "Top Doctors" do

"Minimally invasive"

Procedures. (Yeah, right)




At some point in life

You stop keeping score, or else

You'll never have peace




My whole life's filled with

Things I wish I hadn't done.

Still, I survived them




Better or worse, but

Hey, whattayagonna do?

Existence happens




You there, ballplayer!

No one's really int'rested

In your touchdown dance




Our attention spans

Are being dumbed down

By Television




We're falling behind

The world's traveling too fast;

Solution: "Upgrade"




Brood not on winter,

Shorter days, light's fading, nor

The coming of death




When in growing old,

You call up friends from back then,

You're both young again.




Dental dilemma:

How long will they last? versus

How long will I last?




Henry Francisco

Is who I am; John Henry:

More than I could be.




But Now, attention

Is the name of the game, so

A vile act results




So now I fin'lly

See things as they are, and not

How I wished they'd be




Getting to my feet

Each time is an adventure

Unlike younger days…




Catholicism

Forsakes creativity

For those who conform




The world is wrong, thus

Requiring one's commitment

On many levels




Had no time for sports

Being HIM kept me busy

Henry Francisco




I had to become

A new and diff'rent person

And didn't know who




Not Elmer Gantry

I coulda been somebody

In Erie, PA.




Did the hardest thing

Of anyone in my class

Tricks off the high board




Off the diving board

Me, Tricks, half-gainers

"Whew!" Well, that's over




On to newer tricks

Staying in The Wharton School

Avoiding the draft




A bratty rich kid

But not rich. Just to keep up,

Tried to act the part




Raised on comic books

To seem the same but better

One cheated a bit




A Philosophy

Just like an eternity

Only goes so far




Ne'er wanted to do

Just one thing all of the time

Too much like the store




My friends called my pop

Old philosopher Henry

I just called him Dad




I'm poet, know it

Ev'rything I say in rhyme

And also rhythm




Writing is naught but

Slowing down readers' thinking 

To the speed of pen




The writer decides

Magnification, looking

From his perspective




Haiku is a leaf

Bearing a fresh new idea

Floating to earth's pond




Mister Dilettante

Tasted everything in life,

Never ate his fill




Have all of the fun

Sans responsibility;

Ah, the perfect life…




Living on the edge

On the verge of falling down:

"The End Of Life Blues"




So now I fin'lly

See things how they are, and not 

How I wished they'd be




Of hiding I know

Behind new identity

Just nine blocks away




Marijuana smoke

Just makes you more of what you've

Already become (!)




Twilight of my life…

Treat me well, let me enjoy

The time I have left




Take the other road...

Cease to be who you might have,

Had you stayed at home




The lessons you learn

Are not always the same ones

School thinks it's teaching




The things I had thought

Were important at the time

It turned out were not




Trivia mattered,

Not what I deemed relevant,

Much to my surprise




Brood not on winter

Shorter days, lights fading, nor

The coming of death




The one who knows not

And knows not that he knows not

Is an arrant fool




Life in a state of

Uncomfortability…

Hey, it beats dying.




Serve society...

Confer kindness, on those who

Are closest to you




Something's to be said

For ending up exactly

Where you started out...




On the contrary…

Haiku's not poetry, but

Ideas, alas




Aspire to wisdom

Contributing to the world's

New paths to travel




I was John Henry

For most of my life, but here:

Henry Francisco




Neither a mover

Nor a shaker, Lord, did I

Ever want to be




Maybe I'm Jewish.

I get along much better

With Jews than Gentiles




If no God exists

There is, alas, no "God's Law"

Except in spirit




Lo! God must take some

Credit or blame, if you pray

And He gives – or not...




I can't get used to

The ultimate concept of

Dying. Do we go…




Somewhere else or come

Back here for more of the same?

Encore would be nice...




Can you remember

When you were the golden boy ?

Did you seize the day?




Up on the top floor

I can only see the sky

Not a bad view, tho...




Arguing about

Politics and Religion:

Classic waste of time.




Ice Cream Store childhood,

Flavor: "You can't be ser'ious"

Life is but a toy




Rock Hudson's sex life

None of anyone's business

Ditto yours and mine




Made ev'ry mistake

Yet I've survived until now

How 'bout that for luck...




All of life you  know

Happens in your constant mind

Not so your body




There are no limits

To which imagination

Permits our going




In other words, you

Can contemplate anything

Worth doing – or not




Like changing the world

Using available tools

In a diff'rent way




Let us be as one

Yoke our spirits together

For life's survival




The world beckons change...

Thrust to accommodate it

Now, while time remains




Music without roots

Goes along to where it wants

Ignoring the rules




'Fin'lly realized

All of the best of my life

Happens in my mind




Sure it's not for sissies

Growing old is a challenge.

Better than dying, tho




Maybe, now I'll just

Get the chance to live a life

All over again




Make the same mistakes?

How could it be possible?

There're just too many... 




Is one to be damned

For what thoughts pass through the mind

In idle musing?




Is mere conjecture

Sinning, without carrying

Out the act itself?




Or are we allowed

Total freedom of fancy

In all areas?




Think about all the

Contemplate-able whimsies,

Barring none at all




Foolish things I've done

Haunt me even now, but I

Somehow survived them




"Cash equals success"

–The American Disease:

Married to money




Dreaming of the light

At the end of the tunnel

Illuminating what?




Politics, money:

Two great ways of avoiding

The creative life




You're the fair-haired boy

Don't waste your time on grunt work

Do what you're meant to




Music is not the player

Nor the instrument,

But the idea




Music is itself –

The very notion played out,

Composer to you.




Run an ice cream store –

Show you can be serious

About playful things




The further you go

The farther the horizon

Yet achievable




I looked all around

But didn't find my ideal

Until late in life




My body bears the

Scars of all the foolish things

I've perpetrated




In comics you get

Ultra-reality, with

Characters to match




Tales told out of school

Most exciting to relate

But devastating




Pity the patient

Lo, at the system's mercy

Or off to the Gods'…




I never wanted

To be successful at things,

Just to DO them all...




When you're growing old

Get used to the smell of piss

Finding its own way...




Fools that we may be,

Despite opportunities

We blunder onward




Without empathy

Nurse tends to her daily rounds

(Serves the patients right)




By just admitting

What we are, we can get to

Who we then would be




Do you wish you'd done

A whole lot of things in life

That you chose not to?




Then you might have missed

The whole array of stuff you

Actually did




Quit smoking? Easy:

Carry them around, take one,

Light the match, toss both




Intercourse is for

Making babies. Better to

Learn to masturbate




Bad people use Faith

To persuade stupid people

To do their bidding




Ah, life, adventure…

Down many roads, exploring,

Never looking back




Choose, in the bad times

However it hurts the least,

Live on down the road




Lady in the parlor

But a whore in the bedroom

Husband's ideal wife










XXXXX

XXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXX

CLASSIFIED TO HERE




Suicide bombers

Bargain with death to go on

To the "better life"




Mother thoughtful,

Dad artistic, Me?

A combination of the two




There's no Jehovah

No writer of Holy Books

Except by man's hand




Nor is there a God

Creator of Heaven and Earth

We simply became




Believe in spirits

And they'll surely come to you

Some time in your dreams




Haiku #12

Haiku #13




Write down forceful words

That'll pierce the shell we've built

Then make us act out




The saddest thing is

Knowing that you're capable

But didn't do it




Hear the backup beep

Truck a'coming up the road

To collect your trash




When you're dead, you're gone

Where? Nobody knows for sure

Except those who went




When dead is better

Than living the life you do

Why snuff it? Just change...




Open up a bar

"The Rehearsal" - Live upstairs

Actors, tryouts, plays...




Purely theatre:

Either they come or they don't

(Hookers know the gig)

Haiku #13




Haiku #14

Behold life's drama:

Comedy, tragedy, farce

Then final curtain.




Actors by nature

Aren't afraid to indulge

That's just what they do




The Director is

An "Other self" to he who

Would perform well.




You're a captive

Waiting on "Hold" for someone

Who advertises.




Anyone can bray

Anything they want to say

On TV with cash




They are just actors

Yet we buy what they portray

In the TV ads




We're being enticed

To waste away our spare time

Watching TV shows




Saturday Nite Live:

Ordinary people

Trying on funny




See if you can go

Without the television

For one week only




Do we care what is

Or is our only int'rest

What would seem to be?




Done been ev'ry place

Did it all before,

And now I be ready to die.




So if one of yours

Dies by radical Islam

Go kill one of theirs?




It's all about fun

Of which life is a barrel

If you play it right.

Haiku #14




Haiku #15

Let's be serious

Are you havin' any fun?

Lucky, your work is...




A good book is one

Where you can't wait to find out

What will happen next




Mystery novels

Are books about deduction

(Educational)




He laughed as he danced

Face moving to the music

Along with his form




Titillating kiss

Stoking a furnace within,

Ignited new coals




Once a year you'd like

Your Valentine to be yours.

No one else's, see?




The object of all Art:

Produce something notable

Where there was nothing




"In a dream I saw

A city invincible"

(And where was that, Walt?)




It's not death we fear

But losing our precious life

No matter its state




The mind is a tube

Through which one's ideas pass

And are thus re-formed




Being a writer

One can be brave, and then some

(Only images)




The writer decides

(Viewing from his perspective)

Magnification




Haiku: Perfect spot

To float a new concept

Yet but a launchpad




Had some this, some that

Little Bits of Ev'rything

...Cafeteria




Why pursue old dreams

Harking back to yesterday?

...Tomorrow beckons




Until you do it

You Won't understand dying 

–Drawing your last breath




What you're wishing for...

Is it really what you want

Or idle whimsy?




I have more fun with

You in all of my dreams than

I ever would in life




Screen porches are scrims

Through which the birds cannot see

Singing, frolicing




We are like the birds

Trying to get all the seeds

Relishing their fruits




Talented blackbirds

To be able both to eat

And sing all at once




The habits of birds:

Endlessly fascinating

Barest survival




We are butterflies

Enjoying fruits of nature

Before moving on




Didn't wanna bomb,

People's lives on my conscience

Just learn how to fly




I'm a sailing ship

Dropping anchor here and there

Only to sail off




I go to churches

Cast a lot with diff'rent faiths

Keep What pearls apply




What to believe in?

Faith's a spiritual thing,

Intransferable.




I do The Lord's work

Though I've yet to profess faith

In The Creator




The Lord on a throne

Equals God as only man

Could have imagined




Listen to the voice-

Of one who speaks as God might

Bringing you closer




A religion that

Won't tell you what not to do

Only what you might




Church must spread its wings

Gathering in all people

Creating a flock




All the religions

Are the world's ruination

Their dieties frauds




Nice about Winter:

The cozy feeling you get

When properly dressed




Oft' 'tis easier

To endure the bitter cold

Than to light the fire




I'm a fire starter

Kindling blazes where I can

Heating up battles




Remnants of winter:

Dirty snow, deep potholes, mud

Spring is hovering




Fire burns in the yard

Goodbye Christmas, glittered tree

Hello new annum




Tall maples bloom

Big trees think the warm be spring

But not fooled for long




Man picks up some sticks

Bluebird scouts for last year's house

Spring creeps in, arrives




Yard birds, their homes gone

React in shock, cheeping LOUD.

The trees now beckon.




Hawk drifts on the breeze

Just has to extend his wings

Looking for a meal




I'm on vacation

Away from cares of the day

But I remain here




I stay where I am

But my mind goes where I'm not

To another sphere




My fountains of youth:

Tunes, exercise, attitude

Easy on strong drink




Got what I wanted

'Twas a taste of ev'rything

Van, choc, strawberry




Bikers are like birds

Fly here, there, hang out some, sing,

Fin'lly scoot back home




A positive place

Showing the way to travel

To destinations




Get a bicycle

Bike to the shopping center

It'll change your life




Don't deprive yourself

Of the good things of your life

(...in moderation)




Where goeth the time?

Looking back it "flew so fast..."

Yet ahead it drags




Life has not the time

For doing all I want to

Though I keep trying




Remember the times

You thought you were getting old

But were yet so young?




The force of habit:

Ev'rything is ritual

When you're growing old




A slip in your sleep

You twitch to keep from falling

Tho' you're lying down!




Old contemplations

Are nothing but once-new pants

Out of which we've grown




Cars rushing to work

I hear them as I slumber

In my nice warm bed




Burn my body up

My ashes to an hourglass

Useful forever




The world accepts you

As you represent yourself

'til you prove them wrong.




He went with the flow

Specialized in faking it

Undeviable




Be like a flat rock

Skipping atop a smooth pond

Till You expire, sink.




Two ways to compete:

Be bigger, faster, more, less

Or else be diff'rent.




You want to win? Work.

If you only want to play,

Well, then, that's OK 




Be a melody

Leading us 'long by the ears

With songs for the nonce




Music that survives

Is the music that gets played

Or... oblivion




Don't be restricted

To the melodies of life

Live its rhythms too.




Music is messy

Not pedantic, not exact

Fin'lly resolute




Sometimes you just need

To feel intimately with

Someone that's not you




Convincing new Eves

And also Adams, of course 

"Divinity lives."




"He" lives forever

Mortality dies, alas

One "God" kept alive




Through constant cloning

And passing down of knowledge

Thru generations




A relentless wind

Rips the branches from the trees

Nocturnal ambush.




Sex alone is best

The thrill without commitment

And dream what you want.




Haiku: Ideas

Unburdened by existence

To pick up or leave




Go be the dreamer

Essential inhabitant

Of the world at large




Just be curious

You shall be our salvation

By finding the way




People drink all wrong–

Gradually, sip by sip.

No! Knock it back; stop.




How 'bout price-fixing?

Suppliers get together

Agree to soak us




Two things wrong with sports:

Winning over playing, and

The power of cash




Be you not afraid

Life's not insurmountable

Bring it down to size




I'm poet, know it

Ev'rything I say I say in rhyme

And also rhythm




Village Productions:

An online publication

About the arts here




Editorials,

Fiction as plausible fact

Go, write, and be glad




"Wife Swap" - there's a show

Which spouse would you want to be?

Which mother too, kids?




Pope, former Nazi

Has the ultimate power

Tells you what to do




"How 'bout that, Hitler?

I am boss of ze whole vorldt!

Formula to rule!"




Ve arrre going to

(Vunce ve get reorganized)

Take over ze Vorldt!




Someone get it right

World must run as a unit

Thus be organized




Please, Death, surprise me,

Don't let me know you're coming

Just drop in some time...




Romance ev'rywhere...

Life is such a precious gift

Begging indulgence




My existence is

Living at the edge of life

Re-inventing - me.




He's throwing it in

Didn't want to do it no more

'Less you invite him...




From your misjudgements

Consider the positives

After all, they count.




It's no sin to right

A trespass of omission

Rather a duty




The clouds are on fire,

Sun sets over the water

Burning up the sky.

Haiku #30




Haiku #31




Straighten out your teeth

Your smile is your calling card,

Their first impression.




He spent a whole life

Traveling down the wrong roads

Running after dreams




Being impulsive

Doing things you wouldn't do

It can change your life.




Ruled by impulses

One spends an entire lifetime

Chasing the rainbow




Raindrops pick up friends

Racing down the window pane

Toward their demise




Life in a rainstorm:

Cats and dogs and lightning too,

All intensity




The beauty of dreams

Is that you cast them yourself

All your "friends" play parts




Tears on my pillow

The love of my life's done gone

Married another




I'm the very soul

Of one you once rejected

But I'm still around




My rejecting love...

Her beauty remains the same

As we age, apart




Body looks for death

Mind is havin' too much fun

Doesn't want to go




Seventeen but once...

As it is with all ages

Yet, this one's special.




Excuse me but I

Mistook you for someone who

Might have understood.




There comes a time in

The life of ev'ry human...

Being In or Out




In can surely mean

A heap of trouble or fame

Out can mean the same.




Fame is there

Just beyond dreams

It's the transportation that's difficult

Haiku #31




Haiku #32

Wherever you are

You do the same things over;

Diff'rent scenery




"Drugs are the answer!"

"Ask your doctor" say the ads,

(Justifying dope).




"Get medical pot,

Disconnect reality"

Sez the evening nooz




Drugs are not the fuel

They propel only downward

Away from the top




Drugs are the reward.

Yours after you've clawed and scratched

To the pinnacle.




If you're stoned or drunk

ACT stoned or drunk. Don't pretend

You're normal, okay?




Dope may not kill you

But your reaction to things

When you do it can.




She's reduced her life

To where she can still exist

Yet smoke dope all day




When you're high on drugs

You become a crashing bore

To Ev'ryone else...




Do it without dope

Come, march your craziest self

Of your wildest dreams




Dope might be fun but

It distorts your perspective

Shows things all awry




Dermatologists:

"You are all pre-cancerous;

I can handle that."




Stuff goes right through you

When your body is prepared

You win the first round




Wait till you're ready

Then taste but moderately

Then you win again




Now it wants you back

Resist the urge to indulge

You're on a win streak




Finally Decide

Whether you really need it

Refuse. (Game, set, match).




You recall what you

Intended to remember

Forgetting the rest.




Oft times it's painful

To remember the moments

You'll never forget




You choose to breathe first

And everything after that

Till you gasp your last.




  There'll come a time in

Ev'ryone's ev'ry day

For the sun to shine.




Yet comes night time too

Whether you're ready or not.

It comes anyway.




Life's so fragile, or

So you find when something breaks.

But then (Surprise!) it's too late.




Losers live longer

They get to try many things

And have way more fun.




You've gotta have fun

But you have to pull your weight

Life ain't free, you know.

Haiku #32




Haiku #33

If you're overweight

You wear your sin, and we look

To form our judgements




We miss so much life

Doing what we choose to do

Ignoring the rest




Geometric God

Circle's center ev'rywhere

Circumf'rence nowhere




I have spent this life

Trying to be somebody.

Anybody. Me.




My life in Haiku:

"Little Henry" to old man

(Very poetic)




I'll be God (As if)

Let's have a conversation

Pretend at answers




Opportunity:

Thinking while flossing your teeth

Mining crevices




I am playing God

Where the heck is my broad brush?

Ah! The Internet!




Dot com, not dot org!

"Non-profit" is just a ruse

I pay my own way




God is Perfection

That to which we all aspire

But never achieve.




Suicide Bombers

Deal with death to get over

To the better life.




Little do they know

The better life is right here

Just beyond blind faith




Lie in a hammock

Contemplate the universe

Let the clouds roll by




Very small are we

Yet how vast the universe

Nothing has "meaning."




My time is over

Now it's up to you, you, you.

Carry on, kinder.




Henry Francisco

Age eight, suddenly became

Henry John Henry




H. John Henry's dead

Long live Henry Francisco

In word, music, thought.




ON PWT TO HERE




Enjoy what you got

Don't worry 'bout what you ain't*

*Key to happy life




Do what you can do

Avoid the things that you can't

(Only so much time...)

Haiku #33




Haiku #34

Dregs of life remain

To be consumed with gusto

Till they're all used up




When it's time to die

Move on. Another life waits

Yearning to be lived.




As the years pass by

We search for some relevance

Keeping up the fight




Artistic talent

Warrior mentality

Need them both. Too bad.




A life in Haiku

In seventeen syllables

Snapshots of a time




In Haiku-gawa

Everyone speaks only

Lyrical Language




The Haiku singer

Street corner wise man in song

"Notes of wisdom here!"




It's not the doing,

What's important is the myth

Of the enjoyment




A young man, I sang

"Ma, he's making eyes at me"

In gay cabarets




Storms of life o'er time:

Raindrops racing down windows...

Inconsequential




In a dream I play

The piano at the bank

Moolah serenades




Haunted by mem'ries

I wend my way to dreamland

Behold new visions!




Who needs memory?

Now we have hard drives, thumb drives

To store our thinking




Think with the rhythm

Ravings of a lunatic

Predict the future




I just pretended

To have Alzheimer's Disease

"I don't know nuthin'"




I just didn't want

To converse with anyone

In the time I had




Exercise guru:

He's ninety seven years old

Doin' funky moves




The ultimate drug

But only while you taste it

A Henry's Ice Cream




Haikus by Henry

Just click on the link below

(Mouse-click Imagery)




Artistic people

That's what the Francisco's are

No escaping it.




Never serious

About anything in life

Except performing




We are but artists

Who don't compete, yea, we invent

Thus the world sees




Her father's talent

Coupled to mother's morals

Success is assured




Think in your medium

Form what you want to express

Make it so we feel




Why do you want "Friends?"

Only a waste of your time

If you're an artist




Learn to dig yourself

There's more there that meets the mind

Nuggets of pure gold

Haiku #34




Haiku #35

Feel the need to talk?

Speak to yourself. After all,

You've something to say




Hooked on "feeling good?"

Dig this: the older you get

Fewer are the ways




Two exclusive things:

Where you are, and where you're at

So how about you?




Stay right there Henry

You've got where you want to go

Develop that thing




Where does the time go

When you're havin' all that fun?

To posterity




Songs about money...

Now you have it then you don't

(Pecuniaries)




Here's a new riffle:

Noontime piano at the bank

(Happy money tunes)




"The financial blues

Disappear at PNC

Celebrate your dough"




In the actor's mind

Stardom is the goal somehow

Good, bad, no matter




I know how he felt

John Wilkes Booth, that assassin

No one would listen




No one would watch him

Do Hamlet or Richard III

So he shot Lincoln




Believers in God

Conclude, based on naught but faith

Taught them by others




Let us say I'm right

There is no God or Heaven.

Then what e'er's the use?




My dreams were varied

Befitting an Ice Cream Store's

Flavors and colors




My Dreams were modest

Thus achieved regularly

(Multifarious)




The Human Body

Complicated mechanism

So much can go wrong




Francisco's are inventors

We don't compete

We come up with our own




"Inappropriate

Personal relationship"

(Tsk, Tsk, cavorter)




Make friends with the bugs

It's they who will devour you

As their final meal




Government needs dough?

Why not tax the Internet:

Emails that we read




If System X is

As far as you want to go,

Does your stuff? Keep it.




To FATHER DAN:

That we each would be

Someone's favorite this or that,

Remembered as such...




Surely to be wished

But it's mighty elusive

Mem'ry's Hall of Fame




Whose fav'rites are we?

Or have we seen the death of

(I should say passing)




"Favorite-ism"

Replaced by that old standard

Popularity?




I s'pose that's "High School"

Yet, that's how we live again

Recalling good years,




Best times traded for

Whatever was to follow,

If and when it came.




Thus we are here now

Casting our teacher in mind

Ah! There! Up ahead...




He goes; knows the way

As he did those years ago

Our English guru.




Yea his spirit lives

In our imaginations

He sparked 'way back then.




So, we'll get there too:

Class reunions in ether -

"The Bells" ring again...

END FATHER DAN




Running from the past

Can't be such a bad idea

Keeps you in good shape




"Give your mind over"

A form of insanity:

Alzheimer's




Alzheimer's may not

Be too bad. You'll remember

A bunch of NEW things




FLASH! to Mike Henry:

The neighborhood talent show

Cleveland and his friends




You get a chance to

Show off to the neighborhood

Getting up on stage




Tell a tale 'bout you

Something you did that makes us

Love you even more




He sang boy to boy

Love songs, as Cole Porter would

And he meant them too




Sang in a gay bar

Tell me, are there still gay bars?

I've lost touch, it seems




Rapid expansion:

You can be cyber-famous

Exponentially




Ideas are catching

Their contagion quite rampant

Good ones OR bad ones

Haiku #35




Haiku #36 cb8

But will they catch on?

Against inoculations

By their opponents




Tell you a story

It kinda jumps around

It's all in Haiku




I want to write it

Before I forget it all

The way it happened




So I'll tell you things

Just as I remember them

From my pinnacle




It is all in there

The Port Whitman Times dot com

Blogspot Daily Realm




Give me a forum

Where I can express my thoughts

And I'll change your mind




Marijuana's charge:

It makes you think that you are

More of what you are




Shave and a haircut

Luxuries of days gone by

Yet not forgotten




Charlene sure could dance

But she was a big girl, see?

So she sorta "cruised."




In rhythm, mind you

Smooth, coming in to the dock

Rhythmic motorboat




No, not Italian

The Franciscos have been here

Before Jeffersons




Temptations to do

Outweigh those to read about

Till doing is o'er




Blizzard! From inside...

The image of our front door

Top to bottom snow




Have you ever read

Anything I wrote, or heard

Music that I played?




Winter is comin'

Keep your feet warm, your neck too

Ward off sickness




Father, I have sins

Too numerous to mention

Please forgive them all




When someone dies young

Somehow he stays forever

That age in our minds




In The Poet's Mind

Ev'rything becomes Haiku

Singularly plain




In my oddball way

I long to be relevant

To mean something more




Music takes you back

To places you might not want

Ever to return




Want to be happy?

Be able to get into

Whatever you do.




You can be happy

Just don't court money or fame

Enjoy what you do




Chords are merriment

Really int'resting puzzles

You solve in your ear




We know how he died

But lo, what was he thinking

As he passed away?




"I've decided that

I'm going to be insane"

Speaketh the shirker




"Fuck the whole damn world

Nobody understands me!"

So saith the fool




Do insane people

Decide to go 'round the bend?

Do they make a choice?




Ev'rything's reduced

To Haiku, in precisely

One idea per




Haiku Universe

Comprised of new ideas

Expressed in verse




School defies PC

Political Correctness

Swims against the tide




Life's a controlled mess

Like bricklaying: mortar, block,

Formed into buildings




After you build it

Step back, appreciate it

You fade away, die.




One can but wonder

At all of Hitler's power

How it went so wrong




Somehow stay playful

And your youth is well-assured.

It's all "attitude."

Haiku #36




Haiku #37 cb8

Whorehouse pianist

Played tunes for getting it on

Picking one's pleasures




ONLINE TO DATE 10/9/11




Straight up bebop jazz:

Cotton Candy for the ear

Pure ephemera




Composing music:

Write what e'er occurs to you

Tunes snatched from the air




Purged of life itself

Coming down to the end now

No bridge left unburned




Death comes tomorrow...

What will you have left behind?

Something substantial?




Playing piano:

Master the "thumb-under" move

Along with triads




In my dreamland I'm

A pianist and composer

Inventing new tunes




Some night I'll decide

I'm gonna stay in dream land

Bridge to the next life




To live in dreamland

Permanently is my wish

Finally achieved




If I had my choice

Here is how I'd like to die:

Go. Sleep. Don't wake up.




Did a bunch of stuff

I had no business doing

But it was there, so...




A new way to learn

How to play the piano:

Chords, not scales, to start




Not a follower

Nor inclined to leadership

Just want to be me




Here's the idea.

Just create the dialogue.

(Shouldn't be too hard)




Coupla characters

A one-act play, maybe more

Controversial though...




God creates the souls

Men and women make babies

Not at the same rate




More babies than souls

Thus our essences return

Time and time again




After each demise

Heaven's gate requires a choice:

Go in or go back




Each time St. Peter

Explains the alternatives

To new arrivals




The Lord's gatekeeper,

Helps each candidate's spirit

Make the decision




Retire to Heaven

Or wait in purgatory

For the next body




The choice is random

Or go to the end of the line

How democratic




Take a body here

Reincarnation bingo

To go live a life




You think you'd recall

Having existed before,

Ain't gonna happen




But talents survive

Make transitions to the new

Unaware of death




"Think outside the box"

Don't fear exploring unknowns

"Walk on the Wild Side!"




Play a three-note chord:

Three white keys each separate

By a single note




Improvise a tune

To the harmony you'll make

With the three-note chord




Only use white keys

At first to learn mo' better

Play a well-known song




"Hey diddle-dee-dee"

It's a doctor's life for me

Healing the body




Outlaw lobbying!

Take the money interests

Out of Washington!




Ban the Lobbyists!

Their money is ruining

The United States




The Jazz Band players

From the Darktown Strutters Hall

Made it all special




"Occupy Wall Street"

Figure things out now

The way they might be better




For Some, things couldn't get better

For others

They couldn't be worse.




Modern Confucius

Is what I'm aiming to be

Making sense today




I think extra-box...

Forbidden contemplations

...See if there's logic




...Educational

Playing in between the notes

Where the wild tones lurk




"Occupy Wall Street!"

Blog to save all from ruin

Owing to Money




Please, not to worry;

I'll be back, and when I come

You'll recognize me




Erie is best viewed

In luminous retrospect

Having grown up there




Ravel's Bolero

Smooth operator's version

Seduction music




Now that you're retired

What's to do to fill the days?

Well, you make things fit




Man needs a woman

Telling him he's her hero

Not a nincompoop




The person who writes

Is not the who you are, but

The one that might be




Onomodopy:

It sounds like what it's being

Broadcasting pictures




Life's a vacation

Away from what passes for death

When bodies wear out




When's the time to live

If you don't believe in God

Or Heaven? It's now




Life's a bit of fun

Heaven's long on promises

Hell? Let's don't go there

Haiku #36cb8




Haiku #37

Look at what's coming

Death is a life after all

So don't ignore it




Listen to Mahler

Take a stroll on a green screen

Fill in your own scene




Mahler Symphony

It's like a walk in the woods

Without leaving home




Demagogue wanted

To take over OWS

"Communicator"




I'm saving the world

Trouble is, most people just

Aren't int'rested







Blogged to here







The anointed ones -

Some people are just special

With "star" quality




God creates spirits

Humans create more people

Souls? Reusable




Life on 18th Street

Comic books, cowboy movies,

Ice cream and the strap




Grand old tradition -

"They're all nuts" someone said

"The Henry's, I mean."




We, the survivors

Somehow have learned the secret -

How to make it last




Don't need any pills

To counter my excesses.

I just cut them out.




Mahler's music goes

Onward, into the abyss

Without looking back




Why not create jobs

That offenders can work at

For the common good




With a chain and ball

On a little cart attached

Picking up refuse




A sign on his back

Sez: "Your tax dollars at work"

(Con... Paying you back)




Con sorting the trash

Carefully; gets time off for

"Inconsistencies"




The bargain sentence

Five years - Or ten, but bonus:

Time off for "goods found"




There's an item scale

For ounces of contraband

Found in the garbage




Sleeps out ev'ry night

Regardless of the weather

Pack upon his back




The Mork Manual

Of Marijuana healing

Only in your mind




Don't get complacent

Keep on planning all the time

Stay ahead of fate




Overblown beliefs

In personal importance

Keep our hopes alive




This is not junk mail!

One can send fifty per day

(Personal contacts)




We fight for your eyes

To get our message across

Then fire scattershot




The annual cost

Of putting someone in jail:

Forty grand, easy




There is no answer

So, then, put your depression

Into your writing




I do what I can

Not the so-called "possible"

Sure things my oeuvre




We do what we can

And if we're adventurous...

Attempt what we might




To the wherever...

Music takes you on a trip

With the composer




Goodbye everyone

Enjoy the bread, soup, music

And read the Haiku




People long to be squirted

Sprinkled with dew, as it were

The spritzer can be a he or a she,

And the victim a him or a her.




Listen here you all

I got an invitation

To the Kahkwa Club




The Erie In-group

At the Junior Assembly Ball

The deluding dance




If I'd known there was

All that sex available

I'd have been a priest




Survival's about

Figuring out what to do

When it counts the most

Haiku #37




Haiku #38

Didn't want to learn

But just to experience

All life's offerings




"Won't you think of me

(Song of the broken-hearted)

When I think of you?"




Of course that person

Is wishing they were with you

Far away tonight




In playing music

Ev'rything leads somewhere else

Where you're led to go




Your one faithful friend

Music, always there when you

Need a companion




Fin'lly realized

It's a sad state of affairs

All I've left is me




Use your handkerchief...

Lug your snot in your pocket

(Grand old tradition)




Try to look upon

Life as a long adventure

You a pioneer




The true creative

Won't become mired in a job

Beyond surviving




Tra la la la la

Life is a barrel of fun

Why make it serious?




First we learn to speak

Then to write it down

Why not play it in music?




Wrote movie reviews

Composed a book of music

Thousands of Haikus




Peddled daily news

Picked papers on the roadside

Fin'lly wrote my own




I was butterfly

Cio Cio San tasting flowers

Ev'rywhere in life




Rode my bicycle

All the way to Aunt Mildred's

Got hit by a car




Avoided law school

Worked IBM for a week

Never wanted wings




Learned three languages

English, Spanish, Japanese

Well enough to speak




Lived in Tokyo

New York's "Yorkville" and

Camden New Jersey




Grew up in Erie

Watched the prettiest sunsets

From a Presque Isle beach




Catcher in baseball

Did tricks off the diving board

Round ball in grade school




Became two people

Henry John Francisco first

Then H. John Henry




Peddled newspapers

Sold the Bible in Spanish

Houses in Camden




To BE something, Nah!

But to credibly play it..

Aye, there's life's good fun




Life's a bloomin' ball

And think... You only get one

Make the most of it




I got to fly jets

Wrote articles people read

And played Harold Hill




I was a Psi U

And graduated Wharton

Toured with Mask & Wig




One can play the fool

Not only that but be him

Often in this life




You've reached the stage when

Nobody wants what you have

Then it's time to go




I've been there done that

More things than anybody

Another life awaits




National ID

Cards that show us who we are

And those we are not




God creates the souls

Men and women make babies

Not at the same rate




More babies than souls

Thus our essences return

Time and time again




When at last you see

Naught but life's imperfections

Adjourn to the next




We live in an age

Of things that seem elegant

But really aren't




"Nevermore" saith

The ebony raven high

To the lowly worm




Sing a song of cheer

Christmastime comes once a year

Whew! (Glad that's over)




Prosperity looms

Ev'ry country needs its own

Yule celebration




I wanna get fame

Show all those high school skeptics

Have the final laugh




"Strive" (Umoja) - That means work hard

To learn, know, to educate

Yourself and your own




Umoja (Strive) - Achieve

Don't stop moving till you can't

Budge a new idea




"Strive" (Umoja) - is Unity

Celebrate effort that you

Can put forth daily




"Strive" (Umoja) - Evaluate

Look in the mirror so you'll

Be a better self




Dreary drizzly day

You can just see the water

Hanging in the air




From Dreary Erie

"The mistake on the lake" comes

Henry Francisco




Perfect medium

For a brand new idea

Write it down: Haiku




All have Christmas joy

Dropping our doctrinal guards

We give and take gifts




...Don't think anyone

Enjoys life more than I do

It's an ice cream cone




To bike in Winter

Dress like you're going skiing

Keeping out the cold




When too old to fuck

Cunnilingus is yummy

Tick'ling the hot point




No one's easier

To fool than a person who's

Convinced that he's right




I don't wanna be

There when I die. And it's true:

I'll be somewhere else




Once ego is borne

Into this world, It has to

Shoulder principles

Haiku #38




Haiku #39

Bad premonitions

Have an amazingly high

Accuracy rate




There's just a thin line

Separating deepest faith

From intolerance




The older I get

The less deterred I am by

Something "disgusting"




You got leftovers?

Make 'em into bread or soup

Then that's all you eat




Haiku is a seed 

Planted to grow in the mind 

Of the scrutineer.




Where there exists light

There will also be shadow

Ergo: shadow/light




Where there exists life

Death must also play a role

Polarity rules




Wait long enough and 

Ev'rything will come to you

If you don't die first




Just the same as cars

Spirits ride on bicycles;

Maybe even more,




Pedaling away,

Making wheels go 'round and 'round

Generating life,




Which is where you'll find

Activity, existence,

Remembering, us.




Sandbox pianist

Building musical castles

Under them, tunnels




Improbables rule

In a world where dreams abide

Reality waits




The thing about fire

Is its ever-changing-ness

Rude pyrotechnics




Comes to a point now

I done worn out all my friends

If e'er pals they were




Mahler pushes on

Takes music to the limits

Of the Classical




After you are gone

With whom will I be able

To descend to the




Same low level of

Cynicism where we went

Betimes, and then some




Don't stop creating

Just because Cain killed Abel.

Life goes on. Death not.




Enjoyed the moments

I've got the greatest memories

Never ventured far




Alcohol? Pot? Drugs?

Take just enough so it won't

Affect your judgement




"Haikus! A quarter!"

Enter a subject and out

Comes an epigram




If there is no God

Nor Heaven or afterlife

Look at all you missed




It isn't the speech

Nor even the idea

But how it's expressed




What things must you do

Completely by feel, blindly?

Pick your nose, wipe your...




Okay hero, fine;

But what are you doing now

That the war's over?




Listen to music

Melody, harmony rule

Rhythm's but adjunct




"Mister Henry, I

Ain't no dumb nigger, you know,"

Said Willie to me.




Still, muffled aspect -

Eerie quietness of snow.

Behold Wintertime!




Trying to construct

An alternate universe

(Is it playing God?)




I could never see

The point of competition

"I can piss farther..."




Do you know one note

From another by hearing 

It just in your mind?




All the news that fits

Suspension of disbelief:

The Port Whitman Times




You won't want to miss

The Cathedral Prep Minstrels

Satire, Humor, Song




You can't continue

To beat yourself o'er the head

Go, be successful




Not afraid to be

The utter fool, I went and

Clowned my way thru life




Problem of old age:

How to remain relevant

Yet not chaotic

Haiku #39




Haiku #40

My fav'rite wrestler

Mouse Ulrich, Comedian

Of the high school mat




Alas, computers:

God's gift to the creative.

(Resume from saved point)




Life is too much fun

Why consider something so

Absurd as dying




Failure can be fun:

Plunge into something about

Which you know nothing




Living on the edge

Of discov'ry of myself -

A constant pattern




The appellation "gay"

Has a bad connotation

A swishy inference




If you can play in

The style of Stevie Wonder

You'll just have a ball




Masturbatory

Oh sure, it makes you feel good

As it breaks new ground




The minimalist

Yet the maximum use of

The allotted time




Have you by chance made

The maximum use of your

Small allotted time?




Or are you selling

In spite of what you're thinking,

What the people want?




If drugs were legal

Spelling death to the profit,

They'd do something else




Killing is lethal

Thus, death is not an option

Black Jeopardy is




U.S. ID card

All your personal info

Right in your pocket




John Henry plays God

Purports to solve the problems

Of the Universe




Organize Black Crime

Protect innocent people

Who just want to live




(Let's us manage us.)

"You mean there isn't a God?"

(That's right. Only us.)




"Supposedly, then

Who made us what we are now?"

(God's superior:




Nature, by itself,

Space, wonder of nothing-ness

And Whatever's there.)




Who ought to be God?

In "God's world," problems are solved.

"What would God do here?"




Who would speak for God

And try to do the just thing

Circumstantially?




The year: 2Q12

Port Whitman is created

Its begetter: I.




"In my mind I saw

A city invincible"

Where is that city?




I say Port Whitman

Is the place which in his mind

Walt Whitman pictured




I'm happy and proud

With offspring who are:

Teacher, writer, pianist.




Is it playing?

What is the name of the game?

(It's naming the game)




Old age orgasms

Benefit body, mind, soul

Despite what you dream




The easy way out:

Faith. The belief that some One

Created it all




You pick out the horse

You think you'll enjoy riding

To the race's end




Children of Henry's

All influenced by the store

As were our parents




Henry became John

Thus a performer in life

As well as on stage




Charles made sculpture

Something from former nothing

That seems meaningful




Lois played piano

Accompanied performers

Shows, clubs, recitals




Nancy took pictures

Beautiful shots of nature

The lake's environs




Henry's Ice Cream Bar

Wonderful thing of the past

From nothing it grew




I'm trying to say

Something that really makes sense

To an open mind




I sit at my desk

Pick my nose and scratch my head

Searching for nuggets




Whatever happened 

To your big date, the kid who

Took you to the prom?




Student, you will fall

In love with the piano

Travel down the road




It rarely comes, so

Take time for inspiration

You will be surprised!




Heaven: Behold the place

Where the good things that happened

To you here recur




I'm so creative

'times I think I'm gonna bust

So I write, I sing




Play White-key triads

Using fingers 1-3-5

Ev'ry other key




It only takes you

To gauge your relationships

Then go make judgments




Mahler symphonies:

Ev'ry emotion you could

Think of is in them




I did ev'rything

But nothing permanently

As was my desire




"Just Do It" they say.

So I did, 'most all of it.

(Great Variety!)




"Just Do It" they cried

Not win, nor make a profit,

But participate




Go down a road, take

Whatever you encounter

Emerge with results

Haiku #40




Haiku #41

It's called "Pass it on"

Music is just a language

Turn on to the beat




Free online lessons:

About the piano, yet

Not how it's been taught




Ev'rything's grander

'neath the benign influence

Of my weekly squeeze




Notes "go" together

Chords are keys to harmony

To "hearing" music




You set the tempo–

"Rhythm Box" for the toddler

Baby changes style




I believe I'm shunned

Nobody will talk to me

Guess I'll go play tunes




WPW-FM

Celebrates Gus Mahler week

Plays his tunes only




There's a second life:

Alternate reality

Here in Port Whitman

A place that exists

Port Whitman lurks in the minds

Of its citizens

Part of elsewhere once,

But ultimately banished

For being outré




"Same old Song" cafe

Plays the same piece of music

All day, diff'rent styles




Do something useful

If not for ev'rybody,

At least somebody




The humble haiku:

Quintessential platform to

Float an idea




You have a life, but

Do you have an atelier

Where you create things?




Then... it used to be

Access anything quickly.

Now... Web ads intrude.




Remaining useful,

Purveying acquired wisdom

–The plight of old age




Here's a legacy:

Make sure you don't die slowly.

Eat right. Exercise




Obtuse people watch,

See typical lawbreakers

Caught on surveillance




TV News Programs

Create a stereotype:

Hoodie criminals




People in hoodies

Demonstrating? Then they ALL

Look like criminals




Wear your hoodie, yeah

But find another costume

To demonstrate in




My bank has a sign: No hoodies & sunglasses permitted. Stereotyping. For good reason too. Watch the evening news: Criminals surveilled in hoodies.




Babies push buttons

Playing with their rhythm cubes

Gettin' with the beat




A fraud's what I am

Pretending not to be one

Defining the act




I steal from the poor.

To justify my existence,

I give to the birds.




In order to win

You have to place yourself in

The realm of sure things




Go be the dreamer

Sometimes they even come true

But then they might not...




Ah! You lived a life...

And what did you contribute

That others might use?




"Enjoyment" - Does it

Serve utility, or do

We owe something back?




In music, as life

One thing leads to another

– Composer's logic




Mahler: perfect music

For any Hitler movie.

Rising above plot...




Took all the chances,

I have made all the mistakes

And paid dearly too




Music's magic hath

Charms to soothe the savage beast,

If it's listening

Haiku #41




Haiku #42

If I'd but known then

The lot I've realized since,

Life would be diff'rent




Happiness: not the

Art of being well-deceived,

But of knowing truth




Ain't much in prison

But two things: Hate and Power.

Learn to deal with them




Tall dark and handsome

Always seems to get the girl.

(Hmph. First impressions)




Compromise, no less

Is the refuge of scoundrels

Who'll do anything...




The meaning of life:

Go have a whole lotta fun

And live a long time.




"Don't hurt nobody"

Especially not yourself

In your odyssey




A slave to the muse,

I stop what I'm doing now

To write down the tune




Since I'm someone else

My life has ne'er been simple.

"Becoming's" hard work!




The "Top Doctors" do

"Minimally invasive"

Procedures. (Yeah, right)




At some point in life

You stop keeping score, or else

You'll never have peace




My whole life's filled with

Things I wish I hadn't done.

Still, I survived them




Better or worse, but

Hey, whattayagonna do?

Existence happens




When I fall asleep

New worlds open up to me

Such as ne'er I've seen




You there, ballplayer!

No one's really int'rested

In your touchdown dance




Our attention spans

Are being dumbed down

By Television




We're falling behind

The world's traveling too fast;

Solution: "Upgrade"




Brood not on winter,

Shorter days, light's fading, nor

The coming of death




What good is honor

Ranked even more than life, if...

In the end, you're dead?




When in growing old,

You call up friends from back then,

You're both young again.




The human spirit:

Not done when it's defeated

'Less it surrenders




He hated reading

Always preferring doing.

So what's wrong with that?




Dental dilemma:

How long will they last? versus

How long will I last?




Henry Francisco

Is who I am; John Henry:

More than I could be.




Does it e'er occur

To you righteous people that

You just might be wrong?




That things you thought were...

Were not, ev'rything being

Topsy-turvy, what...




How would you react

If you suddenly found you

Were on the wrong track?




Once in awhile comes

An original voice, with

A new point of view.

Haiku #42




Haiku CB8 #43

But Now, attention

Is the name of the game, so

A vile act results




So now I fin'lly

See things as they are, and not

How I wished they'd be




Getting to my feet

Each time is an adventure

Unlike younger days…




Catholicism

Forsakes creativity

For those who conform




Complicated world…

Requiring one's commitment

On many levels




At the end of life

All who can, should write a book

Telling how it is




Had no time for sports

Being HIM kept me busy

Henry Francisco




Best not to dwell on

Ev'rything that you did wrong

'Fore you pass away




I had to become

A new and diff'rent person

And didn't know who




Not Elmer Gantry

I coulda been somebody

In Erie, PA.




Did the hardest thing

Of anyone in my class

Tricks off the high board




Off the diving board

Me, Tricks, half-gainers

"Whew!" Well, that's over




On to newer tricks

Staying in The Wharton School

Avoiding the draft




A bratty rich kid

But not rich. Just to keep up,

Tried to act the part




Being so naive

It's conform or rejection:

Survive the milieu




Raised on comic books

To seem the same but better

One cheated a bit




Ne'er wanted to do

Just one thing all of the time

Too much like the store




My friends called my pop

Old philosopher Henry

I just called him Dad




Haiku is a leaf

Bearing a fresh new idea

Floating to earth's pond




Mister Dilettante

Tasted everything in life,

Never ate his fill




Have all of the fun

Sans responsibility;

Ah, the perfect life…




Living on the edge

On the verge of falling down:

"The End Of Life Blues"




So now I fin'lly

See things how they are, and not 

How I wished they'd be




Of hiding I know

Behind new identity

Just nine blocks away




Does your faith permit

Total freedom of fancy

In all areas?




One doesn't adapt

To his own mortality

Lightly, or quickly




Coming to the end

Finally bereft, my friends

Are all in my dreams




The future isn't

What it seemed to be back then.

It's what it was now.

Haiku #47




Haiku #48

Quit smoking? Easy:

Carry them around, take one,

Light the match, toss both







If your job becomes

Your passion, you'll never work

A day in your life




Dame in the parlor

But a whore in the bedroom

Husband's ideal wife







XXXXX

XXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXX

CLASSIFIED TO HERE







Living "en moment"

Perceiving "la vie total"…

Wildly o'errated




Image, Sound, Feeling…

Funny, what you remember

From times long ago




Suicide bombers

Bargain with death to go on

To the "better life"




Mother thoughtful,

Dad artistic, Me?

A combination of the two




In my fondest dreams

I'll go to sleep one fine night

And I won't wake up




Guys play cards to win

Women, on the other hand

Like to socialize




Uphill and downhill

Living in the Victor Lofts

The floor's "The Limit"




Growing old, moving

Further from reality

(The pleasure of it!)




Words are the colors

With which writers paint pictures

On the mind's canvas




Growing old alone

Memories of better times

Bodies that don't work




My dream is of you

Lying there dreaming of me

Dreaming about you

Haiku #48




Haiku #49

Mother, wife, sister...

There to listen, help and love,

A traveling friend




Tunes/life: no wrong notes

Just lost ones seeking to be

On their way somewhere




We arrive, grow up

Live a life of what we do

When all's done, depart




We don't cease being

Just because our bodies die.

Somewhere else beckons




The essence of "me"

Cannot be contained, alas

En corpus unum




Death's not an option

"I was" won't ever happen

To any of us




We go on. There's more…

Elsewhere, new place, new people

New Life among them




Ever hopeful, we

Redefine our very souls;

Greet new challenges




Where, what, to go, do?

Would that we could have choices…

("Ah! Now, let me see…")




I pick this, and soon

In a dream I'll let you know

How I'm making out…




Meanwhile, just enjoy

What you've got there, and I'll see

What's up where I am




Hey, it's only life

You learn, work, play, beget, die

(Don't miss the fun parts)




Don't let it get you

Times when you become upset…

Go out, buy some fruit

Haiku #49




Haiku #50

To sing jazz, just be

Able to go anywhere

From a random tone




The Haiku arrow

Is aimed at profundity

Sometimes succeeding




Where would you place your

Sense of Humor quotient, on

Scale of one to ten




I play at my life

Essay roles, create new me's

Not that that's all bad




Two shades of bitter

Sweet thrown in as a bonus:

Choc'late and coffee




The love of money

Is the root of all evil

Where does love begin?




Flower of the earth

Springing from lowly dirt

Into great beauty




Piano General

An army of eighty-eight

Marching to his tune




Looking back, I see

Life has been a series of

Naught but adventures




I wanted to do

Something no one else could do

Or would have dared to




He who partakes of

The vanities of the world

Suffers Heaven's tears




I cast before you

My "vow of eternal love"

Till the clouds roll by

Haiku #50




Haiku #51

One looks forward to

The profound peace of the grave

With trepidation




While there are known knowns

There are also known unknowns

And unknown unknowns…




We live in a world

Of unintended results

Of our own making




Life is about fun

That's its ultimate purpose

Nothing more or less




Felled by great beauty

One is at the mercy of

Music, Song and dance




The trains roll on by

Going from here to somewhere

Diff'rent life, alas




New life environs:

A diff'rent place to reside

Camden's waterfront




Eating an ice cream

No matter what the flavor –

Life can't get better




One could look forward

To the silence of the tomb

Or just sing a song




Guys: How to treat girls:

Unconfrontationally

But yet playfully




"Music is an art

That exists in point of time"

(Copland)

Now you hear it, then…




Music is whimsy

Shot right from composers' minds

To listeners' souls

Haiku #51




Haiku #52

Treat others as you

Would want them to do to you

...Were the roles reversed




"Two kinds of music:

Good music and bad music"

(Duke Ellington)

Train your ear to tell




The only mammal

Capable of amusement

Thus of torture: Man




Dentist designers

Of the sweetest of candies

Drumming up business




Somewhere in your mind

Lies the place of all your dreams.

Any chance you'll go?




Express your visions

In your most potent language

Lest they remain dreams




A piece of music,

Stirring up something in you,

Ends, you continue




I spends m' spare time

Thinkin' up perfundities

Fer th' world t' use




Pleasures of a nap:

Middle-of-the-day dreams play

While doing nothing




You came in my dream

(We kissed, caressed, made mad love)

When I woke, you'd left

Haiku #52

next

Haiku #53

Happiness: a delusion

Of whose emotions

Are Superficial




Yelling and screaming:

No substitute for thinking

Or taking action




Acting in a show

Gives you the chance to become

(Temporarily)




I did not become.

Why Become, when you can be?

Living is being...




Being is living…

You can be, then be again.

But... will you become?




The judiciousness

Of knowing when to shut up

Sometimes wins the fight




See the "fun" people

Make their way entertaining

Presenting viewpoints




Jazz is all about

Where the music's headed for

Not just where it be's




You can't not listen–

Turn your mind off to music

While your brain functions




Your mind and your brain:

Two disparate entities

Working together




Mom, at ninety-nine

"Far away and winding down"

Loved doc's joke-cracking




American Health:

Care isn't the issue that

Making money is




In conversation

Anything can be fair game

To the open mind




Life's a comic book

A little this, some of that…

Variety wins




When you reach old age

You've learned to laugh in death's face

Having cheated it




Good conversations

Brook nothing as out of bounds

Yea, even bad taste




Do not be surprised

If sensitivities rule

The minds of others




You may take offense

But you don't chastise the host

Who gives you dinner




My Tourette's makes me

Blurt random vulgarities

(Boy, what a relief!)




Worrying's our fun

'Cause we're old and decrepit

After all, what else?




Ev'ry loaf of bread...

A new baking adventure,

Gustatory treat!




Thanksgiving dinner

Gratitude expressed by all

Except the turkey




There are lines for tunes

Of type, dope, headlines, lineups

By-lines, and deadlines…




Piano general

An army of eighty-eight

Marching to his tune




Nobody likes me

Everybody hates me

Guess I'll go eat worms




Big fat juicy ones

Itty bitty skinny ones

See'em wiggle and squirm




I bite off the heads

And suck out all the juice, then

Throw the skins away




Old geezer pissing:

Urinate in dribs and drabs

(At least it comes out!)




Kiss me one more time

Before I pass away, love

While my lips are warm




Life partner, kiss me

Another time 'fore I die

While my spirit lives




God speaks in your mind

Put there by other voices

Whose own minds believe




A Haiku Poem:

The perfect mechanism

To impart wisdom




George Cohan called life

“A Funny Proposition”

(You can bet on that)




Rather than grow up

I remained ever the boy

That I am today




Medicare: A doc

For the old and sick people

Whose health is failng




Our ears liven up

To a wisp of melody

Floating on the air




Heather on the hill

Rising to the occasion

Meeting life head-on




Prospects of dying

Other than by my own hand

Seem unthinkable




Your workplace beckons

Whether you like it or not

— Better to like it…




Entice new Viewpoints

With thoughtful words and actions

Displayed publicly




We’re free to perform

A bricolage of actions

To make life better




I ain’t gonna do

This or that, even if you

Beg me on your knees




Lie horizontal

Thoughts come to mind that might not

When you’re vertical




If you don’t “become”

Then you’ll never have to “be”

And you can seem on…




Macht nichts what’s written

If you will but read and think

You’ll be the wiser




Don’t make the mistake

Of imagining you’re more

Than you really are




Still alive, near dead

Ruminating, composing

(Thought wards off demise)




Sought variety

So I tried ev’rything once

What’s left? Well . . . dying




Do consider that

“Verboten” place in you mind

(Hey, only dreaming . . .)




Things acquired mean less

Than knowledge gained over time

And then transmitted




Stare at life’s blank screen

Then cast your own characters:

A play, starring you . . .




One does not “become”

Alone, without life’s helpers

‘Long the fearsome path




Walls inhibit life,

Contain, crowd it within bounds

Begging surmounting




We need be equal

With all of our equipment

To mine life’s answers




Doors seal off spaces

We might want to get into

thus beg unlocking




A chair is to sit

Desk to work, table to eat

Things are to be used




Take it or leave it

A Haiku says what it says

And life rumbles on




The ceiling’s above

And floor’s below, walls surround

Our lives are contained




I’ll be hangin’ ‘round

See what they do with my corpse

After I be dead




Try to do something

That might help to change the world

go ahead, dream on. . .




We soldier on in

A crippled society

Do the best we can




We begin simply;

Life’s rhythms complicate us,

Make us cynical




Life’s music plays on. . .

You come upon a Rhythm

That suits you, now dance




“It had to be you”

Meet the inevitable

Fin’lly come to pass




Firmly committed

You’re heavily invested

No going back now. . .




Draped o’er all our lives

Wires tune us in to power

Sans which we perish




Look! See how your hands

Reflect the activity

For which you use them




Brighten up your soul

With considerations of

What might come to be




The Boardwalk Empire

Is laden with treachery

At every level




Ev’rything exists

In our imagination

Thus under control




Electronics thrive

On humans’ ability

To keep them going




Government holds us

Up at the times we need it;

Down in our excess




To the sounds of life

We kneel, though somewhat able

To moderate them




The insistent past

Pounds at the doors of our minds

“Let me in! I count!”




Go where? What to do?

The future is never clear

A gamble at best




Gamble the future. . .

Pick the horse you want to win

Or play trifecta




Light through the window…

Sun shines on piano keys

Igniting a tune




We breathe of the air

Drink of the water, trusting

That they give us life




Performance: the proof

That there is something within

Worth demonstrating




Advice of others. . .

When to take it, when to not:

Dilemmas of life




Brushes clean us up

Lead us to a Fuller life

(Legend had it once)




Machines rule our lives

Make everything go when on

¿Under our control?




We thrive in boxes

With security code locks;

(Then no one can see)




Speakers tell it all

Truth, lies, tergiversations

We hear, act/ignore




Life’s so myster’ious

Just a bowl of cherries, yo

Don’t take it ser’ious




“Life is but a dream”

Funnybooks say it perfect

In vivid cartoon




The outlet in doubt

Brings naught but tribulation:

Unpredictable




Open the portal

Peer, take note of what’s within

Make your assessments




The older you get:

More frequent dental visits.

‘Last. . . pull ‘em all out




In life, as piano

Playable choices exist:

Melodies. . . rhythms




In ev’ryone’s life

The rhythms knock us about

Scarring our psyches




Melodies soothe us

Patch our scars with beauteous tunes

Lead us by the mind




end 59




Haiku. . . A plain thought

Aspires to be meaningful.

To whom? That depends. . .




I was delivered

Of a large bowel movement

Clearing my system




Floors support our weight

Give us limits below which

We Dare not venture




Floors are for trading:

Open arenas with cash

Flowing at full tilt




Floored is what we were!

That is, shocked at what happened

Right there, in plain sight




Floor of the ocean

Deeper than man has gone, yet

Higher than earth’s core




From my floor I can

climb to heights of which I dream,

Scaling walls of doubt




Floor is overlay

Covering on earthen clay

Protecting our feet




Floors are but stories

Levels of life on which we

Pursue existence




Dance floor capers show

That of which we fantasize

Acting out caprice




On the killing floor

Shock! Then a river of blood.

Meat is created




Floor leaders control

Strategies of their party

In House or Senate




Writing is naught but

A form of insanity

For the talented




Economic law:

“Charge what the traffic will bear”

(Collusion’s corrupt)




Doors to afterlives:

Predicted but not proven

To be celestial




To ward off whether,

Simply close the door to it

Ne’er have to decide




Doors open, thus show

New sets of circumstances

With their challenges




Doors yield to money

How far depends on how much

Or wherefrom it comes




Slam the door? What for?

It shuts just as good if you

Ease it into place




Doors are entryways

To inner sanctums of which

We fathom little




The doors to riches

Sometimes have locks that might’nt

Yield to decent keys




Opportunities. . .

Doors operate in or out

Forward or backward




Though quite limited

My sole talent artistic

Still yet I persist




Haikus are useful

Because you can say something

That’s naught but message




People’s surfaces

Expose but one dimension

Limiting our view




Surface tension tends

To contain itself until

It dries or explodes




When surface mining

We don’t dig deep, ignoring

What might lie beneath




Surface runoff goes

Just where it wants, no matter

Whose bailiwick floods




Surface area:

Obvious, Often hiding

Buried treasure troves




Purge deep, you might find

What surfaces from below

Not what you suspect




Surface structure hides

Underlying eloquence

Oft’ purposely vague




Feeling what we touch

We hope rough surface might bode

Dense meaning beneath




Some musings surface

Of their own accord, un-lured

Infelicitous




Yo! skim the surface

Ride the waves of circumstance

Grab the thrills of life




Henry Francisco

For the first nine years of life

And now for the last. . .




See a rock-bound coast

Behind which an island sits

Inviting study




Climb the rocks of thought;

Looking down, perceive the path

That brought us knowledge




Craggy rocks invite

More durable souls to climb

Nearer to Heaven




Rocky marriages

Frequently lead to burdens

On heads of offspring




Whiskey "On the rocks"

Beats neat, making the effect

More tolerable




Rocking to and fro,

We sometimes adulterate

good sense with excess




If a meaning seems

Elusive, cryptic, Just Think:

“It means what it means”




Got rocks in your head? Mine them,

Who knows, you might find

Diamonds in the rough




Rock bottom tells you

There’s no place to go but up

A new peak to climb




One rock tumbles down,

An Avalanche is started.

Taking us with it




Going? To what end?

Doing? Are you satisfied?

Life is adventure




Things fit together

If you can engineer them

To their harmonies




Life is fitting in

Finding a niche where one can

Suit talent to work




Fabricating thought

Smoothing over performance

Working out the kinks




Spend part of your day

Working up your joie de vivre

You’re dead without it




Work at what you love

Even though it doesn’t pay

As much as you want




If a plan won’t work

Take an alternate approach

With another tool




Get up! Get going!

If you don’t work at your dreams

They’re just illusions




Get life with “the works”

You can always peel away

What doesn’t suit you




If you work them out

Situations can resolve

To satisfactions




My top half works good

But from belly button down

a daily struggle




Music’s Fakery

When played interestingly

Massages the ear




We be what we are

But what can we do with us

Aside from exist?




Made to seem like truth

Good stories are naught but lies

Compellingly told




Art is vivid fraud. . .

Naught but pleasant fakery

Shedding light on life




Music: a sweet lie

Telling us that what we hear

Croons reality




Music is a thief

Stealing us from where we are

To a plane it rules




Proposals abound

Leading ofttimes to action

Repairing frailty




A scheme finds its way

To the heart of innocence

Tainting its nature




A proposition

Is but a hypothesis

Thought out more clearly




The road to success

Is littered with proposals

That never caught on




Need to get it on?

Masturbate on the piano

Play the feel good tunes




Spurred by impulses

We think thoughts, ergo do things

Precipitously




Trembling of the air:

Music touching the body

As well as the mind




Emancipation

Of dissonances occurred

When Schoenberg composed




We shall have no rest

As long as we have not solved

The problems in tones. . . (Schoenberg)




You know, you’ll pass on

But do not believe in death

Thus welcome new life




There are no wrong notes

They just play on and resolve

Into harmonys




There was no bad life

It progressed much by choice and

Became what it did




Life expectancies

Being what they are, we can

Make them suit our needs




Life’s cycles take us

Though battlefields of conduct

Becoming manners




Is life fate, or what?

Are we destined to perform

In plays of others?




Life-or-death is it?

Ev’ry day we choose to go

Forward or backward




Look in the mirror

Do you enact a life - style,

Or mere survival?




How many lifetimes

Can be crammed into one soul

Depends on outlook




Hey, it’s only life

You live you die, so think how

You’re gonna do it




Life begins at nought

Goes to ought-to, resolving

In thought, thence a plot




If you're creative

You will find a medium

That suits your talents




What is the point of

Writing a pleasant story

they read and forget?




Music goes forthwith

To the soul, not pausing to

Be read by the mind




Music is a hike:

Wandering in the forest

Of sounds and textures




Ride the waves of sound:

Tunes that carry you along

To fanciful depths




Music’s instruments

Present euphonious airs

To discerning ears




Musical godsend:

Harmonic diversity

Vibrating the ear




I’ve spent a lifetime

Acquiring experience

To write about now




More of life’s to live

So don’t dwell on your failures

Purge them and move on




Purge yourself of doubt

Strike out for the ultimate

At which you’re gifted




I've e'er been the sort

Who likes being where I am

Keen on status quo




To a naif like me

Ev'rything's an adventure

Including old age




Life's ice cream cab'nets

Boasted assorted flavors

I tasted them all




Hey, what do you think:

Life: a good natured joke, or

Just a nasty prank?




Organize being.

Present a certain structure

As part of your day




Learn productively

What will contribute to life

As you find it now




Produce something new

From the raw material

Of which life is made




Respect others' thoughts

Wander among the ideas

Mine their benefits




Others' thoughts and things

Deserve all of your respect

Treat them as your own




Reason. Think things out

Beyond the superficial

Pursue subtleties




Conserve the vitals

That make up the life we find

Reproduce its souls




Share nature's bounty

Made available to all

Who would use it well




Solve the conundrums

Besetting society

Making life better




Change, from within, or

Without if necessary

Leaving improvement




What's more important,

That which we produce here, now

Or what's left behind...




One tests and observes

What passes or goes awry,

Cure-ables are fixed




Row, row, row your boat

Gently, merrily downstream

Life is but a dream




To be a writer

Access your insanity

And proceed from there




Two odd points of view:

Life – a good-natured joke, or

Just a nasty prank?




As a point of need

You are not born creative

But you become so




Life in a wheelchair

No fun, but it makes you think...

As opposed to act




Drugs need be legal

So you know what you're taking

Then death is by choice




Need is the parent

Of your creativity

Far from your blood lines




I buy all my clothes

Except socks and underwear

At the next-to-new




O spirit within

Help to guide my current life

To constructive ends




Building upon blocks

Already provided me

By mortal bounty




From the present day

To a worthy conclusion

Thence to my reward




Natural rhythm

Is what you've got, but I have

The kind that's acquired




Which one is better?

The kind that you develop

Into a cadence.




Get a good night's rest

To put the past behind you

Tomorrow is new




My soul's a virgin

Inhabiting a body

Here for the first time




This trip I learned how

Next one will be different

Using what I know




When you've nothing left

But the will to live, don't fret

That is very strong




Haikus are like flies:

Imagination-enticed

Ephemera. Drat!




You take a notion

Turn it into a thought, then

Draw a conclusion




Viewpoints beckon you:

"Look at life this unique way

See a pathway there."




The closeness of death

Spurs thoughts of one's legacy

...Bequests of value




What to leave behind?

Cash? Things? Ideas? Worthiness

Entreats for judgement




Narrative is fine;

Ideas as currency

Buys tickets to minds




Go buy all your clothes

At the next-to-new; then you

Know they've been tested




Not just for thought, but

You write what you can publish

For readers to heed




Demise's future:

Something to anticipate–

From there, you pass on...




Life full of promise

But empty of redemption

Leaves one wanting more




Wanna get ahead?

Read the papers, watch the news

Assess your options




Life flies by so fast

One barely gets occasion

To correct; so plan




Where and who you're from

Count heavily in the way

You end, and as what




Haiku deserves more

Than flowers and elegance.

Say something of note!




Perfect medium

For Expressing a notion:

Haiku! (Efficient!)




Be-ing your ideal

Takes do-ing, not fantasy

Words, sure, but ACTION!




It was what it was

Life lived, doing what you did;

So, on to what’s next…




Now I’m old and rich

Can have anything I want

Since I don’t want much




Good Haiku says this:

“It is the way that it is,

Despite what you think.”




Crabs in the basket

Reveling in misery

Capture escapees




I’m being tortured

To death by my own body

’Tis a fitting end




Did we deserve to

Live so long and die so old

When they went so young?




Relax by playing

Anything you want to play

Within the structure




Follow The Path to

Righteousness and your reward:

A good life well-lived




Think on anything

Nothing wrong with fantasy

Make your dreams come true




Something of value

To contribute to the world

–An aspiration




A New Truth for now:

Path to take to salvation

Of the world we know




Bienvenido!

To the Church of the New Truth

A path to pursue




Beyond religion

Into daily behavior–

The beckoning path




Perfect medium

To impart profundity:

Haiku poetry




Everybody gets

The chance to bequeath something

Before passing on




Thoughts of novelists

Lie in juxtapositions

Of Their characters




Here’s a big surprise:

Obstinacy, not talent

Oft can save one’s life




Existence entails

Choosing paths then to pursue…

Following where led




Inevitably

Bowed by blurred moral vision

We can choose wrong paths




Avoidable harm

Springs forth from the rude touch of

Terrible surprise




“Who am I?” you ask

“Who I don’t pretend to be”

Surely the answer




God’s admonition:

“You’re not what you think you are;

I chose you to be.”




Repellent living:

Where nothing keeps its promise,

All’s perishable




“Unique perspectives”

(Something quite unusual

To the TV eye)




From birth to death’s been

A series of adventures,

So, off to new worlds…




Books transmit values;

Probe common humanity,

Thus paths from or to…




Nothing comes from naught

Nor goes anything away

Thus: Tear down to build




Scribes vandalize lives

To provide material

For essays and po’ms




Writers turn their lives

Into artistic fodder

(And those they meet too)




What you can behold

Comprises here, now, but scout

From this point forward…




Here’s an opinion:

I hate to break it to you

But it needs saying




From someone who’s been

Away from it for two years

About to go back




For medicinal

Purposes only it’s true

Not looking forward




‘Cause, realizing

It only makes you more of

What you are, and if




That is something you’re

Not happy with, then your choice

Alone to change is




Something you have to

Live with, knowing that you could

But then might refuse.




The delusion is

You’re being productive, but

Really being fooled




And that’s the danger

The lure, the false illusion.

(Humble opinion)




Refuse believing

In it and go with yourself!

No help but your own




It is quite enough

To believe that within you

Lie tools of success




Pick them up and start

Using them as they were meant;

The future’s open…




A writer defined:

“Someone who has taught his mind

To misbehave”–Wilde




You’ll always fool some

Even sometimes fool all, but

All always? Never!




Your tools of success…

Either to use or ignore

(‘Depends on your goals)




Conservatives think

Ev’ryone should be equal

As they were at birth




Liberals still think

Ev’ryone should be equal

At the finish line




Write better stories

Soon enough the world will trod

Footpaths to your door




Are you sorry you

Didn’t become a writer?

Then start writing now




Composing thought that

Has meaning beyond whimsy

Alas, no mean task




“Just do as I say

Avoid the things I did wrong”

– A parent’s advice




Intrepid now, we

Assume that there is no God.

(Then what’s Perfection?)




List’ning to the rain…

Swishing of cars thru puddles

The seething of clouds




To build a Haiku

You introduce a notion

Then make it resolve




I know what you did

You made a Haiku poem

Wrote it on a wall…




Develop a thought

Into a logical view

Draw a conclusion




Thought, not hard, leads to

Imagining, conjecture,

Theory, Plan, Action!




Why do Plan A when

The alternative might be

A better option?




Ah! To have choices…

“Ultimate humanity”

For which to give thanks




Look around, you’ll find

Worlds of opportunity

Begging creation




Look down and behold

At the ends of your arms lie

Tools of creation




What's a writer say?

"This is the way that it is."

(Or was, or will be)




Look back o'er your life

Do you wish you'd had more fun?

Well… No time like now




Hate to leave this life!

'Cause you're havin' so much fun

Don't let go; live large




Wanna be happy?

Make work your avocation

Then it's all pleasure




You can come and go

As you please, sans permission

From Anybody




On the contrary

Haiku is not poetry

It aims for wisdom…




Life's an ice cream cone

Enjoy it. What will it mean

In a hundred years?




Life is but a theme

Stretch it, toy with it, amuse.

(Think transitory)




When the music stops

You go to Heaven or Hell

Hurry up, decide




I cannot not write

My brain is always cooking

Up new recipes




So write if you must.

Your brain is always cooking

Up new recipes




Looking for trouble?

"What in the world?" is something

You are bound to find




"What does it all mean?"

You ask when reading Haiku

–It means what it says




With our civil rights

Come responsibilities

Freedom has its price




Water runs downhill

'Til it collects in a pool

Where swimmers cavort




Worthwhile objective:

Be of some use to the world

Other than your own




The nature of song:

Ev'ry note goes somewhere else

It hasn't been yet




Tunes' stimulations

Take you where you want to go

In their fantasy




Solo piano…

Go where your fingers take you

(Digital ventures)




Morbidity traps

The spirit that might arise

To create new worlds




Words dilute music!

Lyrics can be enemies

Yet also best friends




Music is release

From bonds created by thought

Flight from the mundane




Trapped amid four walls

Two doors: To life or to death

The voice remains mine




Trapped in nowhere land

Food my only enjoyment

(And writing to you)




Trapped in a mindset

Is nothing you want to be.

You're destined to soar!




Trapped in a body

That will not let me become

Ary but its slave




Trapped in a new name

Welded to identity

That I can't dismiss




In any Haiku

It isn't the poetry

But the thought that counts




You take a notion

Turn it into an idea

Draw a conclusion




You can say something

In a paltry three lines

And make it pungent!




I've always needed

Someone tho loved me enough

To put up with me




A rating system:

"On a scale of one to ten,

Where would you rank ___?"




Things are different

When you hear them as poems

– Easier to take




In an ice cream store

The outside world disappears

For the sweetest nonce




"But what of the world?"

You might say as you pursue

All your lofty goals




Haiku poetry

Could save the world, its structure

Resolution-bound




Living Here on Earth:

Only a matter of time

Then off to elsewhere




Politicians live

In the "land of promise"-es

Made to get your vote




Say what's worth heeding

If they don't pay attention

That's their own tough luck




To be successful

Do what you're good at doing

Irrespectively




What happened happened

Learn from your own part in it

Pursue the future




Dredging up the past

Ruminating history

Is a waste of time




Story of my life:

I never wanted to be…

But only to do…




"Reasons why not to"

Crush down creativity

Before it is born




There's so much to do

Why would you want to just be?

Go! Pursue your dreams!




Life will pass you by

Unless you pretend to care

Even if you don't




When you're in Podunk

Soaking up the local life

Act accordingly




The Bible's next book

Won't come out in printed form

But in cyberspace




How to give advice

On many subjects: Try and

Fail at many things




Haiku: Medium

For putting advice into

A poetic form




A kind of advice

Better than how to succeed

Is how not to fail




New Biblical text:

The book of The Plausible

Read it 'fore you die




Alone with your thoughts

You ruminate on the past

Put it to good use




You have to give up

All the things that are harmful

If you want to live




Kicked the extra point

Caesar Montevecchio

Wound up in the joint




Life goes by so fast

You hardly have time to blink

Keep your eyes open




If you don't want to

Learn anything anymore

Just try to conclude




As your life proceeds

Look back, view all your mistakes

And where you went right




Consider your hands

What they do, how they do it

Utility wins!




Consider your feet

Where they go, how they get there

To what ends they lead




Your life is flashing

Right before your very eyes

Future realized




Henry Francisco

Had an opportunity

To be somebody




"No God, no Heaven."

Non-believers try to get

All they can right here




How much do you need

To buy the happiness you

Think you ought to have?




After you get rich

Is rich-er an apt option?

Consider others?




Talent for something

Is simply proclivity

To work hard at it




To Hell with all pride

Shred the bonds of dignity

Opt for realism




What you lack in strength

You can compensate for with

Imagination




Idealists are not

End seekers, but forgers-forth

Toward perfection




The best of one's life

Is forever yet to come

In this fate or next




Waves break on the shore

Then creeping back under toe

They rise oe'r and o'er




Foes of religion:

Logic. Rationality.

What can be proven.




Haiku logic is

A salvation for the world

Forcing common sense




Haiku's simpleness

Aiming for profundity

Oft hits the bullseye




There's a Haiku fare

Reducing indulgence to

Seventeen bon mots




Haiku contagion

Conditions society

Sagacity-wise




It's going around

With no inoculation–

The Haiku virus




Containers of things

Weigh in by their density.

(Philosophies too)




Promises of now

Oft become anticlimax

When futures happen




Flat planes give full view

To what's happening above

While lower depths roil




Frames, formalizing

That which they are built around

Confer soundness




One life objective

Is to have as much fun as

You possibly can




One person's fun is

Another one's work, but then

It's all perspective




You who don't believe

In an afterlife, just wait,

I'll be in touch, when…




If you're a writer

You are who you say you are

In what you put forth




Haiku poetry

Aims for the profundities

(Philosophy Lite)




You'll know you have died

When your shadow catches up

And passes you by




Pick thee a winner

Then ride it unto the end

To prove you were right




When it is too late

We rush to justify lives

Lived up already




Opportunities

Present themselves constantly

Along life's pathways




Some of us still run

After the race is over

As though it weren't




Rushing Existence?

Racing to the finish line?

Not so fast, podner




Deadlines set limits

Beyond which one dare not pass

Without risking all




Determination:

Races are tests of the will

To triumph right now!




Livin' the fast life

People racing to their graves

'Fore their time is up




Death comes at a price:

Existence, such as it was.

So live your life well




God-inspired, I write

Wisdom in poetic form

Read ye, and observe




Live in the present

The past is already gone

Look to the future




Figuring life out:

Haiku, perfect medium

For thought transmittal




Connect to The Source…

I am but a medium

Through which His thought comes




Sinners fathom all

Thus presume to know the thoughts

Of God Almighty




From the Mind of God

Through the Haikus of Henry

To human insight




I cry for my life

For all of the things I missed

But…Oh what I did!




When the minuses

Of life outweigh the plusses

Death comes lurking 'round




Jazz: nowhere music

For when you want to go there

Get away from here




Jazz: somewhere music

That's not a place you've been yet

Yet might long to go




It's all in the mind

If you think strong and healthy

Then that's what you'll be




The lives that we lead

Are the results of choices

Made for and by us




Our lives are like jazz

Improvised within structures

We find before us




Much as we want life

Death intrudes, sweeps us along

Into afterwards




Jazz is all about

Improvisation, but then,

That's what music is




Haiku is meant for

More than paeans to nature

– Perspicacity –




Jazz throws naught but curves,

Deliberately mis-leads

Into its un-known




When Death comes around

It's best to let it hang out

Don't feed it, stay cool




After death, then what?

Some say Heaven, some say Hell

Meet God or Satan…




A barrier sits

'tween us and the hereafter

Called "Death" – but is it?




Tap your fingers, wait

Something is bound to happen

The world won't stand still




The light that is God

Illuminates our beliefs

Piercing the darkness




Before she was your

Mother, Grandma, Great Gramma

She was mine, all mine




The body interred

The Soul is a prisoner

Awaiting decay




The soul, e'erlasting

Levitates near the body

Till it is no more




Sexuality

Is no one's business, nor God's

Let privacy win




Bottles hold some keys

That open or shut the doors

To aspects of life




The unconstrained life:

A round-bottomed bowl with its

Contents rolling free




Planning your voyage:

Flat is easier going

No bumps, waves – or winds




Containers with lids

Conceal what's hiding within,

Inviting snooping




One's world, closeted

Remains the property of

Its inhabitants




Things that we play with

Remain acting as toys do

Until we shift gears




How high you can jump

Depends on preparation

Combined with mindset




Don't neglect thinking

About tomorrow's crises

They will soon arrive




How to be alone:

Think something original,

Tell it to skeptics




How to do penance:

Grow old, remember your sins

Forgo atonement




If the keys to life

Don't fit the locks presented

Make some adjustments




Cyberspace holds all

That there is to know, and yet

More remains to get




What a waste of life

Indulging in the pleasures

Not feeling the pain




Have you got a plan?

Do you foresee success, or

Will you take what comes?




When you have nothing

Give yourself to ev'rything

Something will come up




I've done so much bad

I feel as though I must do

Something constructive




All that has happened

To me is my own damn fault

(Character defect)




I try to make up

For my own deficiencies

By writing ideals




In living your life

Don't be satisfied with less

Try a bit harder…




Something is burning–

People power longing to

Attract attention




Waves transmit the news

Directly through open air

To attentive minds




The soul e'erlasting

Hovers around the body

Till it is no more




In playing piano

There are no mistakes, just

Notes leading to tones




The Victor Follies

We've young girls and guys plenty

Let's put on a show




Chairs beckon sitters

Beds sleepers, floors promenades

… Ascribed purposes




What you came in with

Then how you used it for good

That's the take-away




Life is about fun

Having it, making it work

For the duration




Believe in Haiku

The language of The Divine

Salvation in words




Inspiration comes

To those who seek it and will

Put it to good use




Laughter, a device

With which we acquiesce to

Whatever happens




Answers will appear

To those who seek to find them

In the right places




New music comes forth

In your humming, whistling, e'en

In your ear unsung




Just sit and think, then

What will come to mind - Surprise:

You'll have an "Aha!"




Brush after you eat

Save your teeth for later on

You're gonna need 'em




Keep using widgets

Until they are all worn out

'Ere choosing others




Prove how smart you are

By doing what you want to

Not think you ought to




Gadgets are keys that

Open doors to horizons

Toward which to yearn




Minds are containers

Of the wherewithal to do

What ought to be done




Don't despair at death

I'll see you when I get there

Together after




"What's the takeaway?"

– Ever the burning question

To the analyst




Inspiration comes

When you go fishing for it;

(Even when you don't)




What one ought to do:

Then perfectly obvious,

Now not so much so




Life's levers abound

With which we can jimmy loose

Jammed panaceae




The world comes around

To new dawn each rotation

Offering options




Good plays expose you

To parts of yourself that are

Like their characters




Good plays expose you

To parts of their characters

That are just like you




Burn up the old ways

Spread their ashes on your mind

For future reference




Music has context

From notion to symphony

All the way to trash




If the dead appeared

In our dreams, there would be no

Reason to join them




Wisdom comes to those

Who seek it regardless of

Their station in life




The benefit of

Living here on Earth is that

It's not someplace else




Life such as it is

Might be no bargain but then

What else is there, hmm?




A good book will tell

How it is there, but also

How it might be here




To achieve wisdom

One must aim to acquire it

Thence its benefits




Round and round they spin

Wheels, worlds, all merry-go-rounds

Coming back to "start"




Be patient, because

What goes around comes around

(Opportunity)




Flatness sometimes works

In your favor when you think

To cruise, not to climb




With bricks and mortar

You can build something real;

With words, ideas




Reality be's –

A train for you to jump on

And become part of




Train leaves the station

Bearing a world of its own

Passing through others




See cars, trains, boats, planes

With lives accommodated

To circumstances




Sounds of life abound

The music of existence

Without which no way




Beneath the path trod:

Trampled vegetation from

Another stratum




Looking up one sees

What might be, or just exists

Yet available




Aiming for wisdom

Open, develop, resolve

All in just three lines




The dilettante's dream:

A taste here, sample there. Ah,

–The well-rounded life




You are a mystic,

Proving it when you utter

Mystifying things




In biblical terms

One thing begets another

(Careful how you act)




Some things around us

Invariably stay put

As we move through them




Contemplate the screen

Showing life as 'twill become

Incrementally




The music of life

Whose harmonies might not fit

Plays on anyway




Tall buildings might hold

Short answers to life's hurdles

With medium gains




A view exposing

Intimate situations

Invites secrecy




See what you can see

Learn what you can learn and then

Put them to good use




Old people ought list

The wisdoms gained in living

For the good of all

There are episodes

You're lucky to have survived

Give thanks, change your ways




No trumpets will sound

When you put forth objectives

Save for in your mind




We find our own moods

In the circumstances which

Somehow find us first




When we walk about

We find new destinations

Materialize




When we look ahead

We perceive new horizons

Beckon us draw nigh




Nearer one's own God

Is found eternity where

Life proceeds anew




Spaces exist where

Abstractions beg hearing

Inner voices cry




In pursuit of of truth

One faces up to mirrors

That reveal the self




Windows grant seeing

Without experiencing

What lies external




In poking within

One finds nuggets and fungi

From which to choose life




Share your treasure trove

For appropriation by

Opportunistics







Words pollute music

Tunes debilitate logic

Ne'er the two should meet




Take any subject

Try to say something profound

Ending up useful




All of the planet

Belongs to each of us in-

Dividually




Love is dangerous;

Its implications often

Connote commitment




Walls that protect us

Often insulate us from

Beneficial thought




Words get in the way

Of thoughts while hearing music

Where notions abide




Light serves its purpose

As counterpoint to darkness

"Oh say can you see?"




Melodies abound

Like hanging fruit for picking

By lyrical souls




Door opens a crack

Reveals a partial picture

Of that which might be




Angles betray what

From a diff'rent perspective

Might be something else




Hidden crevasses

Could conceal treasures of note

Dark profundities




Even sinners get

Divine inspirations to

Do the proper thing




"Why didn't I then?"

Rings hollow when it's too late.

Seize the moment now.




When I was a child

I was Henry Francisco

And him I remained




If you believe

The world can be saved

Then the only question is how




Serious subjects

Need to be tackled today

And dealt with for e'er




The older you get

The more memories you have

Make sure they're good ones




Playing the piano

Is all about knowing which

Keys to push and when




How do dentists brush?

They plainly see things we don't

So pray tell us now




Don't be looking back

Yeah sure, there's lots you "should've."

Think of what's to come




Light the way ahead

With knowledge and counseling

Plunge forth to kismet




Meet some new people

Absorb viewpoints not your own

Broaden your purview




Listen intently

To the harmonies of life

How they clash or square




"Seizing the day" means

Much more than just waking up

It's exploitation




Warning! "Way beyond!"

You've ventured to the point where

There's no going back




Messages appear

Along life's way to tell you

Proceed or rein in




Life's mistakes cannot

Be edited out, but stay

In the mind's hard drive




Life's mistakes, pasted

Over in the mind's hard drive

Plead to be ignored




Ignorance is bliss

Deflecting thought from duty

To random pleasure




Toxicity lasts

Latching on to nuclei

Enticing cohorts




Baring compassion

Can invite harsh ridicule

In the wrong quarters




Ridicule: a tool

Prophets of doom employ to

Expose their real selves




Tools are meant to fix,

Not tear down, unless of course

Aiming to rebuild




Implements of want

Cloud situations of need

Blotting out fortune




Say something germane

To subjects worth discussing

Or remain silent




Right the wrongs you can

Left are those that need fixing

By somebody else




Do you really need

Friends who'd judge your life based on

Their criteria




Live until you die

Right up to the very end

Think, plan, choose, act, write




The cows are mad now

It's a bovine rebellion

A high-steaks revenge




The good times were then

When 'twas as good as it gets

Remember them well




When you fail to find

Things to care about, then you've

No reason to live




Un-impressable:

Those whose passions are sought yet

Fail to register




Poetry can stand

All by itself saying things

Music cannot help




Words get in the way

Of pure music; tunes enhance

Lyrical meanings




I'm good at writing

But lousy at rejection

So I don't submit




Life is a blank slate

Having borders within which

We create its scenes




Saints extol Heaven

To which they've recently gone

Bidding us join them




"Heaven" – Where is it?

Up? Down? Within or without?

Those who've gone there know




To be considered:

God's point of view–Now, today?

(Act accordingly)




For us to save it

The world must be won over

With guns? No. Ideas…




Church, mosque, synagogue

Organizations now but

Items from the past




Inspiration comes

To those chosen in order

To do the Lord's work




God cannot be killed

Religion is in the mind

From its conception




The world is cyber

All of the great religions

Are now of the past




One is born to be

A writer not a fighter

To win wars with words




So, go tell the world

What to do, how to run things

But will they listen?




Though necessary

Unfortunate militance:

Sad commentary




Emotion of tunes,

Interpretation of chords:

Essence of Music




One can't imagine

Being dead, not existing;

Thus Heaven or Hell




Life is in the mind

Existence a thing of thought

The world but a speck




Democracy's ruin:

Wide unchallenged opinion

(Media-muscle)




In order to vote

One must be literate and

Consider issues




Wealth over-rated

World overpopulated

(Sharing essential)




Shading of the truth–

Advertising, the ruin

Of Democracy




Ads frame messages

Democracy needs debate

Of current issues




Obsolete for news,

Newspapers can be forums

To debate issues




Fat, dumb, happy us…

Money can sway opinion

Thus elections bought




Rather than do good,

Lobbys peddle influence

For their point of view




Daily debating

Addressing all the issues

Is a no-brainer




(Voting potency

Literacy-based on a

Scale from one to ten)




This is the way that

It IS, regardless of how

You think it might be




You've made decisions

How to run your life within

Found circumstances




Life begs to be lived

Out to the farthest limits

Within which it's found




Music is as far

As the human consciousness

Can allow itself




Cover what you see

Think but what you imagine

Consider what comes




Oh, Anathema

Thy name is cable TV

Getting your money's worth




You will be surprised

How creative you can get

When you scratch cable




If there is a God,

Not His existence but the

Belief is what matters




Say you're a writer…

The most important choice is:

What's your medium




Don't e'er be afraid

To go on to the next phase

Of what life can bring




Do not be afraid

Imagine profundities

For others to mull




Where then is life's fun…

In the recognition? Fame?

Or in the doing?




Cultivate your thoughts

Prune them into little plants

That bear potent fruit




Lying down, look up.

Shadows cast upon ceilings

Reflect what's below




Lie Down, eyes covered

What appears in repose might

Prove enlightening




Disappearances

Indicate shortcomings of

What might have been there




One can kill many

Quite easily, it would seem

With today's mindset




Things also have rights

But they do not extend to

Animal conduct




As fast as it's made

Media now gobbles up

Creativity




Creativity:

Over-rated quality

(Ev'ryone has it)




Notions are conveyed

When Haiku gets personal

Cornering credence




Tossed into a world

Ill-prepared to handle life

One improvises




Writing down your thoughts

Making something out of naught

Aye, there's a fancy




When you're old, you'll find

This is what dying is like

Get lucky. Go quick.




Achievement is fine.

Making it the point of life

Is futility




Life is all about

What you get to do in it,

Not what you achieve




Once you're a cripple

Ev'rything then is fair game

From your lofty perch




One does many things

Some of them well, some not so

But, that one does them…




Go write, compose, rhyme,

Snatch some perspectives from naught:

Your musings, airs, thoughts.




Capture perspectives

Then write, compose, rhyme, publish

Those you think have worth




You'll never grow old

If, with outlook directed

You open your mind




Outlooks unconstrained

Give a total spectrum view

(Opportunities!)




Ceilings co-exist

For protection and control

Floors then for support




If you had to choose

Achievement? Experience?

Which then would it be?




You're not grown up 'til

You become who you will be

And if never? Fine!




In league with your thoughts?

Loneliness: a state of mind

Only you can cure




Clouding of the mind

Sometimes brings new clarity

To erstwhile outlooks




Amazing Grace is

Oft shown to those who seek it

Working miracles




Sweet to some folks is

Simply less than the sour taste

Of mistakes they've made




Wretchedness pervades

Societies that ignore

Guiding the less apt




Songs that tell feelings

Commit the delivery

To sincerity




What's stuck in your craw's

Oft' worth communicating

In poetic guise




Prefer make believe

To a reality that

Pretends importance




Items pass thru us

From one end to another

Digested between




Brains harbor substance

Containing it for the nonce

Until it's needed




What is "decency?'

The "Golden Rule" hath said it

(Begging refinement)




No Heaven or Hell…

If this were the only life

Could "decency" rule?




Human resilience

Snaps us back from perils that

Would pull us to doom




God would be surprised

At what is perpetrated

By human stand-ins




Naught but here and now

Is the net effect of what

We believe and do




Believe what you want

Yet, assume there is no one

Here on Earth but us




Protection? Granted,

Walls are built to enclose us

(From which externals?)




Cuteness offers much

To utilize when you are

Up against a wall




"Look before you leap"

"What you see is what you get"

(Don't forget to change…)




To do or to write

Which is the more rewarding?

(To you or to them…)




Fancy in your mind

What your Heaven would be like:

Are you sure it's there?




Think on a subject

Then say something about it

From your point of view




Some airs are meant for

Breathing, some for putting on

Some just for playing




If you burn each bridge

The road goes only forward

Across new rivers




Pretty things can lift

Spirits as long as they last

…And that includes both




Ideas gob-smack you

A lift above complacence

To stunning import!




Hands' dexterity

Take us to levels of art

Fathomed by fancy




Love's inspiration

Lifts life's enthusiasm

To piquant extremes




Improvisation

Within life's structures can blaze

Unknown pathways forth




Endless parades of

Viewpoint and speculation

Beg our scrutiny




To the spirit world

Where many souls float about

Newborn lives beckon




Reincarnations

Of many diff'rent spirits

Can live within us




Lie thee down and think

Of what might be if only

A way could be made




Things set forth in print

Lend a legitimacy

To their perceptions




Thoughts swim consciousness

Glowing with erudition

Begging to be fed




Books shall be no more

When thought can be transmitted

Directly (If e'er)




Will the assurance

That God exists ever come

Beyond one's own faith?




Round and round we go

In a world spinning beyond

What we might control




Maintaining restraint

Of life in a bad milieu

Requires diligence




Sex: recreation

And procreation to bring

New generations




Our Democracy:

Founded by idealists

Hijacked by cynics




The naive nation

Buying ev'ry new notion

(No skeptics be we)




Pain is part of life

So avoid it if you can

Or "Offer it up"




Tiptoe to the edge

To experience limits

Where dark perils lurk




The shadows of life

Hide details that inhibit

Possibilities




Paint pictures using

"The art of the possible"

Sans regard for scorn




Lo! What is art but

Using imagination

To create notions




Setting forth one's thoughts

On subjects for all to see

Summons eminence




No taboo subjects,

Nothing then beyond the pale,

Let's consider all

So there! Take this life!

Then do with it what you will

Mine its ups and downs




Way back in your mind

There is a you that will be

Able to fare all




Deep within your soul

Resides a Divinity

You can access now




What you are doing

Can e'er be improved upon

By creative thought




Life's an ice cream store

Made for the having of fun

Tasting of flavors




Sex: Act I – Prologue

Developing in Act II,

Denouement in III




When you're all alone

Warble on your instrument

Assault the silence




Is war obsolete?

Depending on Faith moreso?

Law works, but then, whose?




It is written, true

But of that set down for all,

How many observe?




Someone must do it:

Go lecture humanity,

Take on the issues




Whatever you do

Make use of the tools you have

Manipulate life




When you've done your do's

Continue on, write them down.

Experience speaks!




Be alert for a

Contagion of ideas

That might alter thought




The life of Henry

Entering the great wind-down

Death slyly peeking




"Divine influence"

Via Haiku poetry

Oft' deals in good sense




Romance leads us past

Hopelessness, lest we succumb

To melancholy




Desolation loves

Dejection, so improve your

State of mind, posthaste




Tweet tweet to yourself

Send a melodic message

Tunes improve outlook




Clinging to habits

Doesn't always get results

Flouting tradition




Self-contemplation

Sometimes loses perspective

By magnifying




Around corners see

Reflections of images

If not the real things




DONE TO HERE (106)




Collect your wisdom

In your old age write it down

For posterity




Quoting the poet:

"Better to have loved and lost"

Than to never love




We suffer pressure

For lack of alternatives

(Explore unafraid)




Revelations clear

Paths ahead for directing

Life's expedition




Readiness signals

Ability to accept

Whatever turns up




Willingness to dance

To the tune of the moment

Kindles elegance




An old epigram

"Good things come to those who wait"

Might sponsor false hopes




Nature of Haiku:

Invention of epigrams

That stir emotions




A simple notion

Translated into a thought

Voila! Epigram!




Call yourself "writer?"

What did you put forth today?

Is it readable?




Stars shine and winds blow

Functions of Earth continue

Retarded by faiths




People of the world

Ruled by power-gatherers

Want only to live




Go, be the dreamer

Catching wisps of fantasy

Hoping they light fires




One still feels a hurt

Inflicted many years past

Where love is involved




Traveling lightly

Allows room for observance:

Gathering rosebuds




What the world begs for:

New characters that are bound

To lead it from mire




Death accumulates

Souls once meant for great fortunes

In their times gone by




Warning! God is now.

Then was then and won't return.

Observe, change thy ways




None, nevertheless

As a number, means absence

What's where there once was




Sans rhyme or meter

Haiku isn't poetry

But an apothegm




Numbers only tell

Statistics, percentages,

Leaving sense untouched




Touch your innermost,

Roam your marrow for awhile

Explore your essence




Essential senses

Rescue us from harm's way, yet

Hoodwink us ofttimes




Don't be fooled

By false claims of potency

Seek results, count gains




False maturity

Confronts those who think ahead

To solve new problems




Homecomings are hard

Accepting where you came from

Comparing it now




Blues express cafard

Dredged up from your memory

Sing 'em, discard 'em




Gladness revs spirits

Puts one in the now, thankful

For what is; what's not…




Improvise in thought

Propose what might, if only

Things came 'round to you




"Be a man," but then

What kind? And by whose yardstick?

Why, your own, of course…




Laughter is the cure

For whatever's the matter

At least for the nonce




We're controlled by things

That light up when they're working

And rue the darkness




When you've sold that thing

That you used so much, you'll muse

That you might need it




Where goeth effects

Of words aimed specific'lly

At recidivists?




Be a loose cannon

Say and write what needs telling

Flaunt propriety




Swim the deep waters

For the most elusive view

Appropriate it




Someone has to say

Something universally

Applying to life




Some blunder through life

Ignoring sages' advice

Learning the hard way




You think you're swimming

With fish, but find out they're sharks!

Caveat emptor…




Pawn your valuables

Find out what they're really worth

Is it what you thought?




The tambourine tops

All sounds in the orchestra

(Rhythmic insistence)




Cheaters 'ever win

'cuz nobody catches 'em.

They trap themselves tho'




Paralyze the thought,

You'll find the world moves ahead

Run to play catch-up




Laugh at your mistakes

Chuckle at the past and learn

Then turn, surge ahead




On hinges of fate

Swing doors that open and close

To proprieties




God is now and here

Don't be deceived by something

That might be then, there




God is still making worlds

Like ours – Even better ones

(Perfecting the art)




Contemplate ceilings

Above which there's only sky:

Space with no limit




One is oft inspired

To write down points of logic

Disguised as poems




Explore inner space

Existing across your mind

Think limitlessly




The essence of life:

Intercourse variations

How being happens




Go here or go there?

Get this or get that? Decide.

(The choices of life)




How much? How many?

How well? How far? How High? Low?

Lucky us. Choices…




Electric gizmos

Rule our lives now. So, could we

Exist without them?




Without helping aids

We exist in a forest

Of actual things




There are some things that

Need to be said, so writers

Set them forth in print




Go, aim for wisdom

Write down thoughts conveying sense.

See where that leads us




Some kill their neighbors

Because their God is diff'rent

(Murder for theory)




Even God is shocked

By what is done in His name

Enslavement, murder…




My dream doesn't die.

'long as the dream stays alive

I keep breathing too




Heaven is here, now…

Then comes icing on the cake:

Afterlife – With God




Zoom! went your whole life

Looking back it seems that way

So plan while you can




"Fragile!" "Delicate!"

Covers protect ev'rything

(Reality too!)




Humanity floods,

We kick the can down the road

While one still exists…




Whose God? Mine? Yours? Theirs?

We agree there's only one.

Playing diff'rent roles




Music bespeaks class

If you play "classy" music;

If not, the other…




Life has to move fast

Or your genes feel neglected

(A sign of the times)




Plight of idealists:

Seeking the world's absolutes

Though they're rarely found




Please pass these words on

You with influence above

(You know who you are)




Contrive to perform

In right places at right times

For success to bloom




When things go awry

Consider it opportune

To try radical…




Escapades occur…

Records beget memories

(Posterity's gems)




Seek ye The Ideal

Search in every corner

Do not be deterred




There is only one

Of any ideal you seek

Jewel of your life




Humanity needs

Idealists who will show

Destiny's highway




The most powerful

Weapons at our disposal

Lie within our minds




Not to controvert

Whether God exists or not

Act accordingly




Ev'ryone has brains

Go, use yours to make something

Besides a living




The savants agree

Wars destroy the mines of minds

Crushing openings




Reflect, Improvise

Ideas beget progress

Have them fearlessly




Toil in the vineyard

Pick the grapes, fight off the bugs

Develop, invent




Stand up to drivel

Facing the consequences

Call it what it is




Women of the world

Unite, communicating,

Reject oppression




Thought involves process

Summoning use of logic

To reach conclusions




Within your own mind

Shut out the shouts of the world

Coming to reason




Choc'late cake, chili,

Corn-on-the-cob, griddle cakes,

Mexican sundaes




Get up, into it,

Ev'rybody, get involved

Otherwise… Accept




Oh, love me to death

Lest I perish all alone

Wanting for your warmth




Ain't it good to you

This life you seem to possess

Don't throw it away




Stand up, say your piece

Lest you get left in the dust

Unrepresented




There is but one God

How you worship, if you do

Is your own business




Trying ev'rything

Left me with experience

I pass on to you




Look up, down, around

See what exists there, and form

Your own conclusions




What's mental illness?

Isn't it the belief that

"My God beats your God?"




There is but one God

God's rules and God's promises

Exist in our minds




To human problems

Revolutionaries pose

Novel solutions




Fish, bugs, plants, germs, us…

Ev'rything thrives on something

Blessed parasites




Places of worship

Stir the emotions of those

Who both love and hate




Without religions

The world would be better off

(No competition)




Ethics are logic:

Some things just are, or not, done

You, think about it…




Bugs are without fear.

Would that we could be the same

But we think too much




"How could you do that?!"

Mother nature says, viewing

Man's devastation




The birds know quite well

How fickle we humans are

Thus keep their distance




Jump up and down, then

See your perspective gain depth

From differing heights




Trees tell silent tales

To one another thru winds

Harassing their leaves




Kill everyone

You don't agree with? What kind

Of answer is that?




Power boats, cars, bikes:

Trips that noisy people make

Into our psyches




When you have the chance

To say something to the world

Seize the medium




DONE TO HERE (116)




All alone? Don't fret

Keep company with your thoughts

Explore what might be




Why wait? Get moving

Go find what you want in life

Ere it vanishes




Be loved in return

Enjoy all the benefits

–If you love up front




Only you can change

That way you were up to now.

The future looms large




Losing all your friends

Can't be all bad; no one left

To impress. Just you…




Old friends sit outside

Knowing all, nevertheless

Discuss the weather




Noise, or its absence

Rules our lives whether we hear

Or shut it outdoors




Turn life to poems

Give them rhyme, rhythm, insight

Unlike concrete things




Search in the darkness

Seek the light of perception

Unearth the "Aha"s!




From earth we all sprang;

Thereto shall return anon

When our mission's done




When you reach old age

Record what life has taught you

For others to heed




Plan Reminiscence

So you can look back later

And say "I did that."




Authorized users:

Make sure you have your info

Ready to input




Books tell their stories

You draw your own conclusions

To heed or refute…




Among the diseased

Remain morally immune

See, hear; duck contact




Musical essence

Travels briskly to the soul

(Spiritual gash)




Essences denote

Inner qualities of thought

Lasting beyond now




Steering existence,

We've just so many choices

Seek advice, think, act




It's a tired old tale:

One's life always ends too soon

Yours is not unique




Ere death at twenty

Robert crammed in all he could

Grimly predicting…




Ignoring life's joys

Religion, all about death

Spreads itself like muck




Ingenuity

Captivates with ideas

Quells opposition




Do "they" think for you?

Or have you your own ideas

Impelling action?




Dangerous notion:

Spreading of faith by the sword,

Demanding conflict




As a man, I thus

Welcome a male point of view

In the books I read




"Point-of-view" affects

All that we see, hear, feel, speak;

Pitcher and catcher




What's it all about

Existential conjecture?

– You figure it out.




The only concepts

Worth considering are those

That advance mankind




Believe what you will,

Hypothesize all you want

No one offers proof…




When you speculate

You are laying a bet on

One or the other




Invest in sure things

And you'll never be let down

But then… Adventure…




Hazards befall us,

Make our lives miserable

But we live through them




Appear at the door

Ask to come in, accepting

Fate's warm reception




Geniality

Often spurs underlying

Magnanimity




Murdering people

Citing what they don't believe

…Oxymoronic!




Sometimes subterfuge

Is the last thing left to use

To get the job done




When down in the dumps

Search around, treasures abound

Cast away by fools




A likely escape

To euphoria from guilt

Remains indulgence




Plausibility:

The gold standard of gossip

Superseding truth




Always know the score

Keep track of where you fit in

And chances to win




Lobby the Congress

But don't expect them to do

Without getting paid…




Write down all your thoughts

Cast them out to the airwaves

See what develops…




Think yourself elsewhere,

Imagine how you'd fare there

Circumstantially




Oh yeah? So prove it!

Illustrate beyond a doubt

What would happen if…




Till your final breath

Retain shreds of dignity

Propping up bearing




Say something profound

If you can think up the words

Not to mention thoughts




From out of the dark

Come thoughts, inventive concepts

That could save the world




Illness – A blessing?

That depends; it gives you time

To collect your thoughts




Find your metier

And the sooner the better

It's never too late




On the contrary…

God can inspire anyone

Even bad people




Trapped in a body

That doesn't work anymore

I compose Haiku




Spread the religion

Not by the sword, fool, but by

Internet e-mail




The Bible's next book

Consists of the Haiku Truth

As it is today




Sleep please come quickly

Let me enter your dream scape

Reality gone…




The human body

Is a producing machine:

Work, ideas, kids




Imagination,

Lets us think in the abstract

But then… what we think…




God speaks through you too;

Therefore think: "What would God say?"

Then go write that down




Look ahead, time drags;

Thinking back– "Where went the years?"

Exist in the now…




Suicide is said

To be the most genuine

Form of self-censure




Happy Birthday… Now

Recall "How the years shot by."

Look ahead, prepare…




It's not like it was

Nor what might be whenever;

Regard life here now




Words only spell out

Ideas of what is or not

The do-ing remains




Spring forth with ideas

Cast them out over airwaves

Watch them come to life




If we wish for things

To happen, and they seem to,

Check, see who's in charge




Cyberspace, alas

Isn't the world of free thought

But controlled viewpoint




Go forth, check, see if

What's there is what seemed to be

Or but promises




We live where we are

Plus where we would seem to be

In our inner thoughts




Look back, note how fast

The years went; now look ahead

Act accordingly




It's the first day of

The rest of your life, so hey,

Make the most of it




Here's a bit o' news:

Things never are quite the same

As you thought they were




How fast went the past;

Bank on now to go as swift.

Act accordingly




LIMERICK TO HERE (191)




Why are we surprised

When the news is nothing new

Just ads plus promos




Why are we surprised

When "Made in America"

Lies in our faces




Why are we surprised

Girls can throw fastballs and curves?

We know they have them…




Why are we surprised

Waves are higher, rising tides?

Earth is fighting back




Why are we surprised

When our children join ISIS?

Adventure beckons…




Why are we surprised

Young girl checks out on Uzi

Kills her first victim




Why are we surprised

At flauntings of opulence

No matter the source




Why are we surprised

When drugs o'ertake children's lives

Replacing parents




Why are we surprised

That doctor advertises?

(Gold in them thar ills)




Why are we surprised

That healthcare is expensive?

(Your cash or your life)




Why are we surprised

When people are smarter than

We judge them to be




Why are we surprised

At what is done in our name

When we didn't vote




Why are we surprised

When folks who once were civil

Become savages




We blunder blithely

While our lakes are cesspools of

Runoff and sewage




Education costs…

Doc charges an arm and leg

To fix your tum-tum




I have but three lines

To convey significance

So… It's In Your Face!




Ah, altruism,

The gold standard of caring,

A do-gooder's guide...




I've led a charmed life

Survived despite my blunders

(Must be a reason…)




Don't look now but you

Might be falling off a cliff

With no parachute




Don't look now but you

Might be in for a surprise

That will change your life




Docs don't advertise

Drug makers do it for 'em

Either way, we pay




Flashes of brilliance

Indicate veins of precious

Mine-able logic




When in "Rome" do as

The Romans do, i.e., be

As though you lived there




Is Rome any place

Where you can do as Romans?

What's that anyway?




Never took advice

Nonetheless lived long enough

To give it. Lucky.




Let's get something straight:

There is no them – only us.

Human Beings. Folks.




Abandon culture

Adopt the ways of the new

Just to get along




Believe what you want

Stop proselytization

The world will survive




Art is the outlet

Sought by the young, but denied.

Rival: survival




It's all in the past

But it got stuck in your craw

Let it blow away…




You can do something

Very few are able to:

Make sense in three lines




Sickness: a bother

From which you might recover.

Death, another tale…




DONE TO HERE (125)




If you had to choose

Who you would let reproduce

(Mentally select…)




I think I'm done now

This is all you're gonna get

If it's not enough…




Art is visual

Writing is literal but

Both can speak ideas




Teaching the faithless

How to think for themselves is

A job for prophets




If, as some believe

Heaven is right here on earth

Are you getting yours?




Think to cut and run

Before you get too involved

Lest you must commit




Suicide: The most

Democratic form of self-

Determination




Educating docs

Needs to be gratis to those

Who can qualify




Self-determining

Is a matter of option

Coupled with desire




What to leave behind?

Thought? Money? Collectibles?

Or just memories…




There's a better way

No matter what you're doing

(Open the portals)




DONE TO HERE (126)




If you're an artist

Be prepared to go too far

Stretching the limits




To have dimension

Each phase of life must have more

Than simply breathing




We measure it all

How many, much, high, low, deep?

Then what, distribute?




Music hath its charms

Soothing up the savage beast

What? Teach him to dance?




When you have become

More afraid of life than death

Alas! Time to go…




Friends, to the artist:

A classic waste of his time

Better spent doing




To be an artist

At whatever you do, just

Think up better ways




Don't keep it secret

That better way you thought up

Tell it to the world




Come on, think of it,

A choice: be tortured to death

Or just beheaded?




The violent game:

Think, is it worth the hurt to

Satisfy the crowd?




Now ev'rybody

Googles ev'rybody else

Nosy sorts are we




Something will kill us

If not Ebola then what

Lurks around the bend




Making love is fun

Till you find out it's incest

Then it becomes sin




The day, upon us

Demands we do something, ere

Life passes us by




A Haiku opens…

Develops in the next line

Finally resolves




How deep is the lake

Of one's emotions which lie

Only at bottom




In water we have

That which quenches, washes, cools

Threatens if not watched




God has many worlds

Over which to watch, so why

Should He favor ours




When the brain stands still

And the muscles stop working

Only the soul lives




Haiku with its charms

Faces the savage varmint

Bearing salience




Alex Fekula

The ultimate party guy

At Psi Upsilon




The Haiku Challenge:

Who can make the most sense

Three lines seventeen




Five syllables first

Aiming for profundity

Then settle the hash




Just hold up your side

Of any conversation

By acknowledging




Society’s not

"What you gonna do for us?"

– Just the opposite...




Not to blaspheme, but

Think. If this were the only

Existence you get…




Being induced to

Kill those who may not agree?

(You are being used)




Which will work better

In opening locked-up minds

Bombs or ideas?




DONE TO HERE 128




Pursuing stardom:

Lifetime preoccupation

That rarely pays off




Drop leaflets to send

Suggestions of better ways

Bombs just won't do it




Fence off Ebola

On an island far away

'Til a cure is found




So, which is stronger

A plague or an idea?

No match? Think again




Why shilly-shally?

Don't we have technology

For spreading the word?




Wait! Think about it

Who's smarter? Us or the germs?

So then, hop to it




American bane:

Kids! Smart-asses playing tricks

(Naught better to do?)




Take the dough from bombs

Spend it on education

Inspire, don't destroy




Our good qualities

Outshine those of which we should

Be truly ashamed




"Those" folks are humans.

Fight nihilism with concepts

Spoke within their grasp




DONE TO HERE 129




Fantasies aren't sins

In spite of what you might think

So dream what you want




Thinking and doing–

Two diff'rent things completely

Note the distinction




Comes a time when Death

Backs you into a corner

No out. Go along…




Go, surprise yourself*

Explore your creative side

*Not to mention, us…




Is it wrong to kill

That which harms the world?

Who decides then, what "harm" is?




Rain falls down on us

Flows downhill to rivers, seas

Rising to air, clouds




We play our life tunes

Improvising upon them

Lo! Finding new riffs




Find something to do

Beyond observing others

Go play in life's game




Life comes like the rain

Drip drip on the windowsill

Falling thence to earth




Lived on the same block

But then we were miles apart

In how we thought, did




DONE TO HERE 130




Eschew violence

The internet is the sword

For spreading The Word




WHEE! War is naught but

A deadly game played by those

Devoid of options




When your party wins

Resist temptations to gloat

Get down to business




Blow your nose today

Your fingers go right on through

The tissues (cheap junk!)




I believe, alright;

It's just that I don't accept

The way that you do




Our worlds don't need more

Diversion, but yearn to be

Told just what to do




Look around, decide

Find a niche, inhabit it

Learn to live within




Life is like playing

The piano, just feel, find

The right keys and push




There's a time and place

To do just what you're thinking

(When and where's the rub)




Think it up, write it,

Publish on the World Wide Web

See who notices…




What you're thinking up

Find out if it works, then go

Sell it to the world




ONLINE TO HERE 11/13/14




We've learned to ignore

The words that go with music

Unless we're list'ning




Suicide bombers:

The end result of fervent

Religious belief




What would Jesus do

If He were alive today

That's what I'm doing




How would Jesus act

If He were alive today

That's how we should too




Find yourself a niche

Inhabit it until you

Can stand it no more




It would have been nice

To have done what you wanted

But, c'est la vie, cher




As the curtains close

All the foolish things you've done

Can be forgiven




How many times were

Those you cannot recover

But wish that you could?




Friends out of the past

Haunt those of us who survived

Making us better




When machines murmur

They are but doing their jobs

Listen to yourself




Original thoughts come

To us all the time, yet, we

Don't acknowledge them




END HAIKU 132




Christmas is a time

When we all get together;

Express happiness




Do you like to smell

Your personal excretions?

Well, you're not alone…




Creativity:

Is it writing one's memoirs

Or coining the new?




Old bodies wear down

Get ready to take a trip

Into Everland




To be resisted:

The absoluteness of Death.

Live it up, have Faith!




How disappointing!

Things I once thought mattered

Amounted to naught




When your head is warm

And feet too, ev'rything else

Takes care of itself




Rhythm takes you to

Where you might not otherwise

Dare to gallivant




Rain has rhythm too

Like hail, thunder, windy snow

The weather in charge




Faith is a matter

Of deciding plausible

Versus fanciful




END HAIKU 133




What is, surely is,

What seems just might be, but then

…When you think of it…




Pointing the ideal,

What society needs is

A new Messiah




Here's how it is, world

Straight from the mouthpiece of God

Revelation spoke




You're creative, eh?

What did you devise today

We can take away?




As humans we all

Choose respectability

No matter our rank




Not made corporeal

The Messianic Spirit

Inhabits us all




Wanting expression

The Messianic Spirit

Resides in the soul




Search within yourself

The Messianic Spirit

Implores arousal




Arousing the mind

Humanity's own conscience

Stirs undertaking




Go. Behave yourself

Just as though your afterlife

Depended on it




END HAIKU 134




Your sex life is none

Of Anybody's business;

Don't talk about it.




Relax when you fall

'Cause if you're tense when you hit

Something's gonna break




I can still do this

Maybe even still do that

Not nearly dead yet




Ice cream, popcorn, nuts

Henry's, selling the good things

Candy, comic books…




When you run out of

I-can-still-do-that's, then it's

Time to pack it in




END HAIKU 135




I'm no one, but then

I am somebody, ergo…

I am who I be




God The Creator

Resides in all that we see

Proof of existence




The Son of God came,

Showed The Way, gave His Body

Rose again to live




The Holy Spirit

Unseen of the Trinity

Resides in us all




Not what you become,

Contrary to what you hear

Life is what you do




There's a difference

'Tween the way you wear your hat

And the way you think




Wear your hat backwards

Only looks like you don't know

Which way your head's on




Some of us live just

To create beauty, or else

Die in the attempt




Beauty is… itself

Regardless of they eyes of

Beholders thereof




Pick, make a choice of

What you want to be, that we

Then can see you as




END HAIKU 136




When memory goes

Whimsy is there to step right

Up and take its place




But then, with what can

You use to be whimsical?

Words? Tones? Paint? Action?




I always wanted

To do a whole lot of things

So that's what I did




I never wanted

To do one thing well enough

To be chained to it




Variety is

Truly the spice of life, so

Taste all the flavors




"In your face" Gay rants

Accost us without warning

Forcing reaction




"Fake sincerity,

And you've got it made" they say.

(Hmm, calculating)




The full life advice:

"Keep going until you're dead"

(Goes without saying)

END HAIKU 137 (8)




Go ahead, do now

What you're later gonna say…

"I coulda done that"




Funny how we can

Look back on our lives and see

What brought us to here




Best to look ahead,

Choose a reasonable path

Then proceed that way




The puzzles of life

Demand solutions that use

Available tools




Bible tells what was,

Media tells what's goin' on,

Life is what could be…




To the ear, music

Is what it seems to evoke.

Words get in the way




Poetic ideas

Flow to the mind like music

Sans tunes to distract




Burying the past

Is not easy, as it seems.

The mind resurrects…




Snobberies emerge

Dripping with condescension

Offering gloved hands




Playing piano

Making harmonies emerge:

A matter of choice




END HAIKU 205




I resolved one night

I had had enough of life's

Full-blown adventures,




Its uncertainties

Weighing heavily on my

Doddering corpus,




Communicating

What I have to say, all done;

More but redundant.




I put me to sleep

In a bathtub full of blood

Never to awake,




Except in a new

Place and time that's surely now

With fresh life to live;




Then lo and behold!

My Heavenly dream came true

To be transmitted…




Existing again

Another world, which I find

Not unlike the old,




Though now containing

Challenges I hadn't thought

Would arise again.




"Bring them on!" I said

Eager for experience

Yet to put to use




In novel ways with

Brand new casts of character.

(To be continued…)




END HAIKU 138b (Not published)




Being damaged goods

Since a tender age doesn't

Mean one can't function




End Limerick 206




Grab hold of your life

Use your situation's tools

To get where you want




The psyche bears scars

Of many foolishness-es,

Marked until the end




There comes a time when

Mechanisms for keeping life

Displace its pleasures




Executives hire

Communicators, thus use

Available tools




"Life is just a bowl

Of cherries." So it is said.

(Beats dyin' too, eh?)




If one can't find what

One thinks one is looking for

Best check what else is…




A beautiful smile

Radiates; yea dominates

The rest of the face




Eyes exposing truth,

Lips utter circumspect words

To keep from offense




Guarding your psyche,

Avoid situations that

Could inflict distress




END HAIKU 139




When you have to think

The strength into your body…

("Hey, I can do that.")




Secret to success:

Look just like everyone else

But do it better!




Learn to give advice

Then to heed what you have said

Confirming your point




Feel the delicious

(Even if temporary)

Rattle of courtship




A generous man

A reasonable woman

…A peaceful divorce




Kind words are like salves

Soothing hurts, placating nerves

…Just what God ordered




"Who knows what evil

Lurks in the furtive mind of man?

Hah! The Shadow knows!”




Words once spoken are

Therefore un-retractable

So they best be good…




Echoes of statements–

Mountain hollers in the night

Arise with the sun




Proverbs are inscribed

On organs that hear, and send

Them to those that think




END HAIKU 140




Think, yes, and infer,

Casting shadows, or dramas

Whose characters live




My sex life is none

Of your business, as is yours

Not a care of mine




I don't mind dying

Just do not want to suffer…

'Zat too much to ask?




Catholicism:

Obsessive compulsive Faith.

Partly ritual




Writing sentences

That end in prepositions

Shows one doesn't care




People that I love

Do not keep secrets, at least

Not of which I know




Lord, you must be tired

Of my contrition, saying

"Okay, I get it."




I wanted to do,

Not be chained to becoming;

Thus: experience




If there was a goof

To be made I made it, yet

I somehow survived




My savior is you

Who read these offbeat thoughts then

Take the hints therefrom




END HAIKU 141




A philosophy:

"Life is a series of games;

Avoid what's called work."




It's better to fail?!

(Then you get to do other

Different things in life…)




Religion can be

Turned into something good, or

Something destructive




Steering Religion…

What driver is at the wheel,

Down what road, to where?




New Democracy:

All can vote for ev'rything

Or against something




With the choices made

We've ended  up where we are;

So… What to do now?




Ev'rything done wrong

In one's life comes back around

Later for revenge




Life has its revenge

Coming when least expected

To exact payment




"If only I had

Continued with this or that,

I could have become…"




Be a loose cannon

Speak frankly, no matter what

Accept consequence




END HAIKU 142




Life disappointing?

Find something better to do

– A matter of choice




Become or aspire

Chasing the dreams of others?

Consider your own




Which one is more fun:

Becoming, or just doing?

Life, alas, is short




The body needs sleep

But if it won't allow you

To get some, you die




Lying, not sleeping

Fluids running in my head

Death lurking about




Surefire life advice:

"Don't tie knots, until you're sure

Bows won't do the trick."




In my life to come:

Hope I'll remember how to

Play piano and sing




Noting the era

Hurrying by as we live

My my, how days fly




End of existence…

Backed up into a corner

(Come, death, I'm ready)




You get to the point

Whatever you do, it hurts;

You're ready to die




Being old and sick,

Dispensing acquired wisdom

Is all one can do




Life-ending? Choices

Gradually restricted?

Alternative: die




END HAIKU 143




The only thing that

Will become of everyone

Is death's aftermath




Bulletin to all:

Your hair is not "important"

It's just hair. So there!




Deja vu moments

Pop into one's consciousness

…Notifications




Consider feces

Where it comes from, what one ate

Then draw conclusions




In the know, go to

Cognoscenti corridors

To find out what's hot




Doing, if one can

Is much more fun that being.

Then, a doer be…




(Peripatetic)

One never wanted to be

In life just to do




After all is done

In life, there's only one thing

Remaining: To write




Being where one's at,

Circumstances what they are,

Continue to next…




Writing things down is

Creating reality

To be remembered




END HAIKU 144




In society

The capabilities that

You need… develop




Make Black lives matter

To society-at-large

Get woke, stay that way




A simple question:

"Are you useful to the world?"

(Figure out a way)




So many jazz groups

Not making up melodies

But practicing scales!




Personal attacks

In political campaigns

– Un-democratic




Listen with your ears

But decide with your stomach

Digest completely




Choosing this or that:

The democratic process

Hmm. ("Eenie-meenie…")




The ideal hotel:

Hospitality, safety,

Location, Menu…




Symphonic chording:

A combination of things

With which ears agree




Hillary Clinton

Breakthrough female candidate

Women… Run things right!




END HAIKU 145




Learning from The Past

Anticipate The Future

Indulge in The Now




We all have genius.

It's a matter of tapping

Into its locale




Choosing to do a

Lot of things acceptably

Is surely no sin




Who sez life can't be

Totally, playfully, an

Enterprise for naught?




Playing at a life

While living another one:

Wreck-reational




To be for awhile

Then go on to something else:

Venturesome living




Wanting to become

Giving up wanting to be…

(Experimental)




At some point you keep

Pushing the life envelope.

If not, start dying




Drugs are for seeming

Life is for doing, but the

Choice is up to you




One nice thing about

Being unloved: You can say

Anything you want




END HAIKU 146




When you play music

You become it, regardless

Of that who you were




Where is adventure?

Is it in doing, or thought

That you leave behind




You think I need you?

I don't need you, I have me.

What more could I want?!




An original

No one else has seen as yet–

That is what to be




Y'can spend yer whole life

Collecting experience;

So then ya can write




Simple decisions

At the beginning of life

Change its direction




The world is a dream

So always be a dreamer

Then it's yours come true




There is a diff'rence

'Tween inventing ideas

And implementing




Death comes forth, peeks

Its head around the corner

Pulls back, awaiting




God surely exists

But it's man's concept of God

That screws up the world




END HAIKU 147




Once you are married

You come at things diff'rently

Thus change perspectives




Wisdom doesn't die

But passes on to the next

Logical juncture




One last hope: To die

Before you suffer what could

Kill you too slowly




The way that it is:

Chaos must be created

It won't just happen




Life's an ice cream store

For tasting all the flavors

It has to offer




Life, like a good meal

Is all for the tasting of

Flavors that entice




To write how-it-is

Hitting the target smack-on

Is winning a race




It has been a life

Of doing, not becoming

Purely adventure




Why not adventure

Forgoing accomplishment?

One life's all you get…




Learn the scales, the chords

Then improvise melodies

To suit progressions




END HAIKU 148




Live until you die!

Just because you fail at this,

Don't give up trying




I'm not sure but I

Think I tried ev'rything once

(Experimental)




Thine is the kingdom

The power and the glory

Forever, Amen




Prime marital rule:

Learn to forgive and move on

To better endings




Great art comes, presents

Before the judgmental sense

Of the beholder




"I can still do this

I can even still do that

So I'm not dead yet."




Countries of the world

Shackled by histories – Snap…

Figurative chains!




If you can hum it

Note it on the music staff…

Look what you've composed!




Oh Henry! How you

Write those limericks that say

A truth for the nonce




The taste of ice cream

On perception becomes a

–Sample of Heaven




Flying in your face

Audacity elicits

Final conclusions




Simplicity breeds

Contempt for subtle thinking

Drawing conclusions




Silence affords thought

From which to draw conclusions

Leading to wisdom




END HAIKU 149




Drugs say "Hey, give in

To brisk impulses," therefore

Affecting judgment




Drugs just make one more

Of what by now has become;

(Y'can do that yourself)




Engage! Be fearless!

Yield to doing what you do

Spurring a tirade!




"Whirl!" The dance of life

Ripe for choreography

Within your milieu




How many thoughts file

Through fate's constant parade

Inevitably?




Ballets concocted

With various attitudes

Display elegance




Read the signs, observe

What they say that's relevant

To life as it's found




"Times change" – Tis truly

Aphoristic, until bang!

They come back again




Obstacles beckon:

"Come jump over me and see

To what you can soar!"




Tables of plenty

Exist somewhere in the now.

Finding them, the task




END HAIKU 150




Exercise the mind

Creativity needs work

To lubricate it




The ultimate sin:

Refusing to imagine

When one's capable




Choices to be made:

A living flipping burgers

Or purveying thoughts




Looking up, one sees

What could fall, but what's down could

Rise up and getcha




Harmonies abound,

Hang around long enough if

You encourage them




Poetry that counts

Says something well-worth heeding

Plus… remembering




From all directions

Come what could be confections

Perhaps corrections




Drop some thoughts like bombs

On whole civilizations

Destroy shibboleths




To be a poet

Compose your novel thinking

In a metric way




Angles hide shadows

Doppelgängers of the real

Waiting to emerge




END HAIKU 151




Kill people with bombs

Or change them with poetry

– Luxuries of choice




I cannot help but

Wonder if you'll miss me

Or not when I'm gone




Snobs are people with

Limited intelligence

Who fear for their place




Our dads existed

In times of small businesses

Then bigs took over




The good candidates

Constantly expose themselves

Figuratively




Life is a notion

We get when we're born, and yet

More is still to come




Clouds hover over;

Loom, as if waiting to strike

When the moment's right




We are born blank slates

Upon which we are written

By circumstances




Be the one crab that

Escapes from the basket with-

Out being dragged back




Don't think small, think big

Thinking small will get you small

But BIG – Well, maybe…




Dream big-crab because

Your friends will try to drag you

Back in the basket




Believe forth your life

In as grand a scale as you

Can manage to live




END HAIKU 152




Get education

Sufficient to do what you

Want to do in life




Exercise can be

Physical, mental, even

Spiritual, no?




Brain surgery, done

Externally, with ideas:

No blood, pain, free thought




How to manage death

So it won't hurt or linger

Preparation counts




As the mind ages

Memories grow in numbers

If not pungency




Lying down, blink, watch

Spots drift to peripheries,

Slowly disappear




To offend someone:

How many ill chosen words

Does it take? Just one…







Anticipation:

Just around the corner lies

The unexpected




Sit upon a throne

Ruler of all you survey

Just don't look too far




Life: a series of

Angles, corners, doors, dead ends

To negotiate




END HAIKU 153




Polyphonous sound

Permeates the atmosphere

Ev'rywhere distinct




H. John Henry Spent

A life of learning to be

Henry Francisco




How much wood would a

Woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck

Could chuck wood? That's good!




Puns: for the clever

But intellectually

Unadventurous




Jesus might have said:

"You go, do what you can do…

Rest is up to them."




When you write as much

Stuff of which you're capable

Go  on…write some more




That which hangs, swings

Subject to prevailing winds

For inclination




Influences change us

Even when we refuse them

They have their effect




Change? Suggesting change?

Someone does the dirty work,

Takes consequences




Once upon a time…

It's now, is it? (Fairy tales

Begin at some point)




Whenever stuff gets

In the way, brush it aside

Go on to better




END HAIKU 160




The real scribe says

"This is the way that it is."

–Lets it go at that




"If the chord feels good–

Play it over and over

Again."– Is that Jazz?




Just 'cause it's written

Don't mean we're gonna heed it

Or even read it




Only beautiful,

Lacking curiosity

Isn't quite enough




To the creative:

What remains is to go, look,

Find a medium




Go, be this or that

While avoiding becoming…

Boy! will you have fun!




With caution, go get

Little bits of ev'rything

But excess of none




Silk purse from sow's ear?

No, but showing the best side

Make what's there look good




Sow's ear to silk purse?

Well, no, but you surely can

Make the best of things




Seek and ye shall find…

What's apparent; go further

For gems to treasure




END HAIKU 161




Seeming: just the food

For intellectually

Unadventurous




Seeming or Being–

Which would you prefer if you

Could choose between them?




In your life you get

Little bits of ev'rything

But excess of none




When life disappoints,

Move on; jump to something else:

Recourses spring forth




How many? How much? How

High, low, far, near, to, not to?

Ah! Choices abound!




At points in one's life

Alternatives appear to

Choose between, then act…




Lie down, be quiet

Listen to voices within

Calling for action




Act upon impulse!

…After consideration

Of consequences




When the brain dictates,

Using reasonable sense

Spur the heart to ends




Ends, means, tools, vision

Used together in concert

Make progress, maybe…




END HAIKU 162




Rubber balls bounce back

Like rumors begun, although

Still undistorted




At bats produce, or

End up as experience

For judging pitches




Words, with their meanings

Transmit messages pictures

Can only present




Words show verbally

What images indicate

But can't deliver




Variety brings

Innovations of genre

Along with flavor




If not you then who

Will come to the aid of Earth

In direst of times?




A gift from God to

Be capable of great things

Must be advantaged




There's so much to do

With little time to do it

Get up into it




Being where you've been

Capable of greater things

Don't sell yourself short




To write and advise

Is one thing; to read and heed

Is quite another




END HAIKU 163




Summoning wisdom

Come up with aphorism

To suit the moment




Washington proxies

Influence legislators

Pushing cash around




When writing, one says

"This is the way it is, now!"

…Until the next time




Imagination…

Take it, crack it like a whip

Provoke attention




The animals fight

But man, capable of thought

Has alternatives




War, about winning

Loses rationality;

Life, about fun– dies




Wars of weapons win.

Where is the war of ideas?

What's it about? Fright?




War is obsolete…

Acting rather than thinking;

Vision, thus, loses




The power of speech

Aimed, overcomes explosives

Demolishing walls




To see far, one must

Peer through lenses of logic

Drawing conclusions




END HAIKU 164




Record discov'ries

New ideas, ere they depart

Appearing elsewhere




Real thought blossoms forth

With blooms of good ideas

To show, fade and die




How many puzzles

Does it take a life to solve?

But one: Existence




Life is about fun

If you're not having any

You're doing it wrong




Life: An adventure

While strolling through the jungle

We… are animals




Life is like cutting

Something with scissors – Gotta

Watch where you're going




Life is like a tube

Of toothpaste: you squeeze ev'ry

Bit that you can get




When you sing words, they

Take on a super-meaning

A hum-hit home-run




Life proceeds apace

Doesn't wait for catching-up

So hop on, go ride…




Walls enclose, prevent

What's threatening one's treasures

Buttressing safely…




END HAIKU 165




We are all results

Of what we came from and were,

Going thus equipped




Verbal proposals

Lobbed o'er plates like slow pitches

Invite batters’ strikes




Tinged with sex, sound some

Invitations to indulge

That tickle the mind




Fancies respond hard

Conjuring up ideas of 

Pleasures thus indulged...




Sex pills can't do it

But there's imagination...

GOOD ideas! Hmm…




Raw innovation!

Gives overwhelming pleasure

To those who use it!




Double-guarantee:

Having fun works, moreover

Fancy will improve!




Mind-blowing ideas

Come infrequently, sometimes

When you least expect them




Triple sensation!

Get more out of what you do!

Think "Out of the box!"




To think you might be

Taking a Heavenly trip

Bends the mind upward




END HAIKU 166




Register knowledge

When you learn it, then tuck it

Away for later...




No life refunds there.

Do what you do, accept results

Continue. Or change...




If it tastes good, then

Remember for the next time,

Anticipating...




Pure power expressed

Gathers attention when it

Affects witnesses




Many times it seems

We are bigger than we are

But then... Who isn't?




Often times it seems

Verbiage, a sort of sport,

Captures our fancy




New cream works! But then

Didn't the old cream too? Well,

Jump into ice cream!




Open up your ears

Listen. Is what you're hearing

Worth attending to?




Rhythms entice us;

We step into them heedless

Of their risky ends




END HAIKU 167




Many times in life

Come 'long days to up and die

Go. Do it. Or don't…




Life was what it was

(Sure could have done it better)

But there you have it




Enjoy the gay gene

Pass it along, have children

Life goes on, somewhat




Maybe don't become

But to do a lot of things.

That counts for something…




E'er be the dreamer

Being the dream for awhile

…Promise not to hurt




Radio lesson

In how to lose listeners:

Conduct fund raising…




The name of the game

Is trust, not only among

Animals, but us




You would think by now

People would have enough sense

To govern themselves




Notes sung to hear are

Made to up and charm the ear

Produce reaction




Reduced to bare truth

Words' meanings will indicate

Directions to take




Upon looking back

Accomplishment– Okay, but

Life is about FUN!




END HAIKU 168




Trying many things

Over the years, one might find

Some succeed, some fail…




Franciscos, alas

Possess the adventure gene

Going out afar…




Important matters

Triumph over trivia

Asserting themselves




Sampling many things

Go, experiencing life

Like an ice cream cone




Go, get to be things

Never having to become

Play abounding roles




When pills stop working

God takes over the body

Thence …To Kingdom come




Please Lord, remove us

Far away from suffering

Signify the way




Be a notion-eer

Ignite minds with ideas

Spark innovation




Cremation: the fire

Igniting what was once live

Into helpful soot




Anomalies show

What might occur, appearing

When attention lags




END HAIKU 169




"Life is like a dream…"

Tomorrow another, then

After that yet more…




Do things that are fun;

But when they turn into work,

It's time to move on…




Hip-Hop: Doggerel

Set to music and purveyed

As art – So it be's…




Life, such as it is

Beats death, as it just might be

(Well, usually)




Dilemma: Do what's right

Or run for re-election—

Politician's choice?




What's more important:

Cash spent on War? Or Healthcare?

(Obvious to some…)




The brain, being part

Of the body, comes apart

Right along with it




Browsing for links to

What you want to access beats

The yellow pages




You get to the point

Tired of being alive, so

You just want to die…




When you preach to them

Do they listen? Observe? Act?

…Depends who they are




END HAIKU 170




The older you get

The more expensive the pills

To keep you alive




Human destiny

Aspires to create beauty

From plain components




Make a sow's ear look

Like a silk purse by showing

Only the best parts




An idea in jazz

Is concocting a new tune

From old harmonies




He sang "Save the world!"

Other people listened…

Or didn't. Pity!




Who wouldn't listen

To another's melody?

…Auditory gift!




Oft' times songs emerge

That one wants to sing again

Then to someone else




Sounds have "character"

Representing feelings, moods

Spreading them around




"Playing" is a game

No different with piano

The keys are the toys




Make up a song phrase

Then see if you can play it

Then sing it again…




Whistle, hum, scat, sing,

Then play it on the keyboard

Start with any key




How to play piano

Start with any key and then

Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti…




END HAIKU 171




The primary tools:

Basic maneuvers. Get them

Out of the way first




Learn the thumb-under

Or middle-finger over–

Piano procedure




How to play a "chord"

Do Mi So, or Do Fa La

These are the basics




So you lose a tooth

It's not the end of the world

Although… less chewing




When you write, you say

What needs saying to those who

Might pay attention




When you sing, you hide

Behind a lyric that might

Carry a message




People need be told

If not what to do, then how

To approach ventures




You're a good singer

But with the New Camden Times

Be a major voice




Imagine what could

Eventually become,

If not already




What chu gonna write

To stimulate the minds of

NCT Browsers?




Artist: Please yourself

But spare us your indulgence

Till it's made into art




Do not fall in love

With your "style" for it might not

Be what you think it




Marijuana makes

You think more of what you are

While making you less




Were I younger, I'd

Concoct a way to make you

Fall in love with me




Cures without doctors

Exist, but you have to make

Them happen yourself




END HAIKU 172




Whether to dictate

Or perhaps participate…

(Write, publish, or meet)




Reach too far and lose

But you've stretched the dimensions

Of where you can go




What did you become?

Something useful to the world

Or just existence?




When you compare them,

Life and opera are the same

Just diff'rent sizes




Marijuana makes

You dream, but in doing so

Subtracts what you do




I hung out with

All the wrong kids, observing

Diff'rent ways of life




Desirable: to

Die quick and unexpectedly

In a state of grace




Imagine, see what

We discover much later

Concluding therefrom




When I lay me down to die

I don't want then to wonder why

I lived my life the way I did

To be denied a Heav'nly bid




Scribe: seek to provide

Leaders in search of ideas

With material




A new World Order

Is called for: Re-organize

Morality now




Shoot for perfection

Or will acceptance suffice?

Make profit, move on…




You take what you can

On the merry way of life

Giving back in kind




Something comes along

Ending life as you know it

A "graduation…"




When the music stops

Angels search for something else

To provide the airs




END HAIKU 173




The music of life

Plays on harmonically

Contrapuntally?




Life is about fun

Nothing more, so whatever

Amuses one… works




Do you contribute

Anything to the world you

Live in ev'ry day?




To ration yourself

Is a discipline Harvard

Should have schooled you in…




You've been cast by God

In the role of a lifetime;

Take the part, perform




Now is the time for

All good women to come to

The aid of the men




Job? You want a job?

A mission suits you better:

That of a firebrand




Good things e'er await

Requiring exploration

Then exploitation




Do not let yourself

Get down. Leave the past and go

On to the future




It's a tired old tale:

One's life always ends too soon

Thus is not unique




Holy as they be

Spirits await, imbibing

Souls to their milieu




END HAIKU 174




The Lord calls; but first

To say “Goodbye” in a way

That counts for something…




To be or not be

Thus the question arises

In life to decide




Melodies of life

Save us from our destruction

At hands of tyrants




A self-delusion:

What I say or write can mean

Something to someone




A common language:

Music, alas, by which we

Can communicate




A way exists, so

Find it to get to the end.

Destinies abound




The soul! Ah, that thing

We have but alas know not

Its direction, yet…




When the body fails

The mind continues to work

Indulging in dreams




Music’s in the air

Tunes waiting to be captured

Caged up and set forth




When your pencil runs

Out of lead, go get some more

If any exists




I never wanted

To be, but only to do

All the things I did




Of all the things I

Could have done, I did the ones

That were the most fun




Fraternities need

Some adult supervision

Helping kids grow up




Fantasy—Dreaming

Your dreams in a way that you

Want to dream them. Now




Art is saying what

You want to say in a way

You want to say it




Life is about fun

Having a lot of it says

You love what you do




END HAIKU 175




Life is simple, ne?

Asking little, giving much, while

Going on, or not




A good day to die

Comes but once in a lifetime

So go on, do it




Haiku sayings are

Ripe for turning into verse

Just find the right rhymes




Choice: Experience

Or Responsibility

(Writers: Number “One”)




Let the men invent

Let the women run the world

(Good general rule)




Women: Run the World

Men: Stick to inventing, build;

We’ll be better off…




Lord I thank Thee for

Giving me what Thou bestowed

Life, being, doing




Invent a thing to

Do, thus keep from becoming

Old shoe, old hat, old…




Becoming— Old hat

But doing— Now there’s a life

Worth ev’ry minute




Life: So many things

To do. Why then just become?

Then be artistic




Never wanted to

Be, only to do, thank you

That was quite enough




Take advantage of

The times to be creative

Write, compose, invent




Create. Make what you

Can as long as life remains.

Leave a legacy…




END HAIKU 176




Comic books give you

A perspective not normal

But caricature




Go play many parts

In life, also on the stage

All of them are fun




Write down what you know

So other people can learn

Without DO-ing it




Hurry up and die

Growing old’s not any fun

Unless you’re healthy




There is nothing worse

Than feeling avoided by

Someone you admire




If your impulses

Win out, surely be discreet

To a fare-thee-well




On getting advice:

If the shoe fits, then wear it

If not, walk away




Feeling avoided?

Hmm. What on earth did you do

To incur such wrath




The fork in the road

Comes but a few times in life

(Directional choice…)




Being avoided

Punishment worse than dying

…Strong feelings prevail




Dreamgirl Svengali

Leads one to “Hello Dolly!”

A leading lady…




The power of words

To convey meaning and thought

…Yet to be surpassed




END HAIKU 177




Is more civilized

Better than less civilized?

Alternatives beckon




Racial bitterness

Is largely a waste of time

Think forward, progress!




Gone are the old days

Don’t look back; think what’s coming

Prepare for the best (worst?)




Ideas come and go

As if they owned the road that

They travel upon




Fat, dumb ’n happy

We wend our way, disaster

Looming ‘round the bend




Impulsiveness gets

You somewhere new, but is that

Where you want to go?




Chances come and go

So grab the brass ring when it

Comes around again




Keep your eyes open

Opportunities for which

To take advantage




Helping yourself to

What is available, go

Do the best you can




Take time to enjoy

Being alive now because

Dying is no fun




Help me to enjoy

The pleasures of living, and

Endure the pains too




On the contrary

Marijuana is reward

Not means to an end




END HAIKU 178




There are those of us

Who deign to be anything

But live just to  DO!




What a wonderful

Life I’ve had, from growing up

In an ice cream store…




There were many things

To do in order to write

Telling to the world…




In the pantheon

I never wanted to be…

But only to do




When it’s time to say

“Adios,” to a someone

Go find someone else




You write what you can

Depending on your training

And inclination




If you’re creative

Producing then what you can

Depends on training




Gimme a flat price

To pull all teeth and replace

With useful dentures




Alzheimer’s Patients—

There are two realities:

Write = Fancy — Real = Do




Life miserable…

Death better, welcome in fact

Whatever comes, comes




END HAIKU 179




Suffer while ye may—

Life exists, the condition:

A comfort matter…




Bequeathing my soul

To Tony, Brian, Mila…

What talents I have




Omni Reductive

Converts junk to usable

“Remanufactures”




Looking for answers…

A great “Why?” needs a great “How?”

Sensible reply




Done been ev’ry place

Did it all, and now I be

Ready to go forth




Haikus are but thoughts

Expressed in a written form

To make readers’ sense




Words go directly

To the thinking part of us

Stirring reaction




Art goes deeper yet

Stabbing its meaning direct-

Ly into the heart




Writing words that mean

Something to the reader’s mind

Is its own reward




Words as dialog

More than descriptive, speak thought

Directly to minds




From an ice cream store

It’s been a wonderful life

To a limerick




La: A world without

Forgetting: Eternal Joy

(Ceaseless suffering!)




When God created

Adam, then Eve, what was He

Thinking? More? Or less?




Don’t all humans want

The same things: Health, Happiness?

Then what’s the problem?




Trapped in a new name

Bound to an identity

That I can’t dismiss




Behold: world without

Forgetting: Eternal joy,

Ceaseless suffering




Raw wisdom uncouched

In stories or articles

Is for the taking




END HAIKU 180




What girl wouldn’t flirt

With a producer who casts,

Coming on to him?




Jazz: Combination

Of rhythm and melody

Just one won’t make it




Jazz combination:

Rhythm, harmony and tune

Just one won’t do it




Ran away from home

On a lark with Tom Hanley

Stole a car, wrecked it




Not wanting to be

I only wanted to do

So never became




Take hold of a pen

Think up a new idea

Write it down in verse




There is a ceiling

Under which we all survive

Over which God rules




Once in a while there

Comes a time when ripening

Fruits require picking




Floating down river

On my back with a hard-on…

“Open the drawbridge!”




When you just want to

Do, not be, resist the urge

To fully commit




What the world needs are

Standards of intelligence

By which pay is gauged




Need: World-wide standards

To be paid accordingly:

Olympics’ Know-how




WAR: a game big kids

Play when they don’t know how to

Keep score otherwise




Trump: Salesman-in-chief

Made to persuade the whole world

How to get along




Some people learned their

Manners from the pigs, others

From their own parents




Some people push each

Other out of the way so

They get what they want




City boy knows better

But lets it slide, thus towns

Deteriorate




Country boy don’t know

No better, puts his feet up

On The furniture




Creating thought is

The ultimate act of will

After which: Action!




Speculating it…

Every thing and every one

Is useful somehow




Jazz is music that

Goes nowhere purposely, so

You go right with it




Knowing what good is

Is a part of life that can

Make or break careers




In order to write

Have to have lived long enough

Experienced things




One gets to a point

Where all there’s left to do is

Suffer till one dies




Little did we know

The Electoral College

Would come to bite us




Reader’s choice:

Ev’rything that’s right/wrong

With our society is

What’s right/wrong with it too




Camden isn’t owned

But inhabited by minds

Possessing Image




To discover who

One can be—An exposure

To notice then heed




When one wants to die

How to do it? Quick and neat?

Or slow and messy?




As I am in pain

Allow me the dignity

Of killing myself




One just wants to die—

Is that such a simple thing?

Go on… Stop breathing…




Lotsa luck with that

—Not just a matter of will

But of means, a gun…

God says “Eat the gun,

I look forward to meeting

You here once again.”




A means to an end

Is a welcome finale

To a life well-lived




Dearest Helen, life

With you has been my pleasure

Beauty… Intellect




Tony, Brian, James,

Mila: Pursue Life and Love

What better than that…




Death is hanging ‘round

Judge? Feel? Think? Fear? Imagine?

All of the above…




What wisdom retained

Is all set forth succinctly:

Haiku, Limerick…




Urinary pain constant

Antibiotic no help

Future Bleak…

Death better.

Love to all

H




Antibiotics

Don’t help urinary pain

Recover or die




Final love to all

Helen, Mila, Brian, Tony

Y bon voyages




Life not worth living

Constant urinary pain

Might as well end it




We are not actors

In someone else’s drama.

Francisco’s create




If you’re night people

The World exists during the day

You’re missing a lot




Life, come to an end

Constant urinary pain

Then will be over




You are a singer

Mila an accompanist;

Figure out something




The highest calling

In life is to imitate

The Lord. To create




Get to the point

Wanting to die, then transmit

What you have to say




Thinking? Don’t reduce

Parameters to minor

Items. Go for it!




Enough can be said

On a small piece of paper

To change one’s thinking




Can you imagine

The joy that a bug feels when

Finding a dropped crumb?




If I can but write,

Let what happens to me go

On until I die




Small town growing up

Even big minds thereupon

Do smallish thinking




Hey! You late sleepers

Wake up! The World operates

On its hours, not yours.




If you’re a writer

The idea is to write

What’s not been written




Why would you believe

That God created all this…

Couldn’t it have… been?




But then… It couldn’t

Have just happened. Something’s up

Ah, “up” – There’s the key!




With marijuana

One has to do too much with

Impaired equipment




Okay, so you’re Black

Don’t let your Blackness use you

And, don’t use it up




There are team players

There are individuals

…A matter of choice




Be a writer. Write!

Deciding what’s wrong or right

Later, editing




See gardens of words

With logical birds pooping

Musings over Earth




Implement of death

At hand, pain ever present

What’s the choice? Easy…




Loving life with pain

No easy task, but then it’s

Absence (and pain’s)… Hmm…




Life, even with pain

Beats thinking’s cessation… yet

Hurry up, Death. Come!




Life is about fun

And when it ceases to be

One can welcome Death




Urinary pain

No relief, constant distress

Alternative: Death




I have said my say

If you’re listening, pay heed

I love life, living…




No alternative

When drugs, therapies don’t work

It’s a one-way street




As long as I can

Stand it, I stay alive to

Say what I have to




Medicine Business

Make life a helluva mess

Docs no help (“Cash-Cows”)




U.S. Medical

Run by doctor Iago

Just a bloody game!




Urinary pain

Making life a mess again

Death preferable




Still some life to live

Still some thought to give, and yet

Too colored by pain




Making life a mess

Urinary pain, distress

…Alternative: Death




Obsessive thinking

Needs aiming, direction:

Constructive targets




Some things one can’t stand,

Urinary pain constant

Suicide better




Imagination

Thinking about other things:

Welcome distraction




Urinary pain!

Thinking about other things

Precluded for now…




Drugs are lotsa fun

But then, so is just plain life

Hmm, take your pick, cher…




Founding parents die

Organizations live on

Spur sons and daughters




Urinary pain

Fever, distress, life a mess…

Death alternative




Pain main character

Playing a role in my life

Better it exits




Urinary pain

The worst kind, unrelenting

Prayers, pleas no help




Pain main character

Playing a role in my life

Better it exits




Urinary pain

Remains. Never goes away

Persistent bugger




Cash Cow  for Doctors:

U.S. Medical System…

By milking patients




The dead soul awaits

A new body to which to join

For a new life then




I’ll play my music

As the child of Mila and James

—Another living…




Knowing where I’ll go

My soul shall then inhabit

James and Mila’s Child




I lie down to die

But I know where I’m going

A next life to live…




I bequeath my soul

To Mila and James’s Child

Live in verse and tune




A soul does not die

But lives on in another

Body, mind, spirit




May my soul go to

The child of Mila and James…

Musician, poet




Or to the child of

Anthony, Brian, my sons

When they have offspring…




Life is quite the mess

Urinary pain, distress

A Bitter ending




Life’s a precious gift

And with it sometimes comes pain.

Tradeoff? Really not!




Life ceases to be

Constant urinary pain

Afterlife welcome




A choice: Die or Write

As long as thought and words come

…Easy to decide




U.S. Medicine

All about making money

At patients’ expense




Life a distraction

Constant urinary pain

Alternative: Death




A choice: Die or live

As long as one can think, write,

Continue, go on…




Doing what I can

I be not long for this world

Hope welcome the next…




“If it feels this good

Getting used, keep using me

Till you use me up” (Bill Withers)




Once, someone taught me

“You can be bigger than life!”

…Valuable thought




I am who I am

And I be what I can be

More can not be done




At the Wharton School

We Learn how to teach people

How to run their biz




Who gave you the right

To tell people how to run

Their lives, Henry, God?




The same old routine…

With constant urinary pain

Suicide surcease




Urinary pain

Distress, making life a mess

Solve by suicide…




American Greed:

Money grubbing medical

Industry. For shame!




Opportunity

Knocks, and when it does, answer

Or it goes away…




Burning up, and not

Yet even in Hell, but then

No final note sung




I am burning up

My Hell occurring in bed

(“Oh Lord, forgive me…”)




Pain keeps one awake

And when you can’t sleep, you write

Thinking to do so




Only a conduit

Through whom ideas can pass

To readers from God




Born to write ideas

For readers to take or leave

Judging their value




Suicide answer

Takes to “you know-not-where,

Besting constant pain…




Pain taking over

Living minute-to-minute

Aspiring to… die




Words are only words

Thought, even inexpressive

Spurs further action




Sweating the bedding

Fevers can then be soaking

Sheets before croaking




Addling one’s mind

Fevers have a way to spur

Further imagery




If only to draw

Conclusions artistic’ly…

Words have their limits




Wise people write down

What occurs in their musing

For future use… then




Burning up right now

Instead of afterward, when

It’ll hurt much more




Writing poetry

Instant gratification

(Body dies, mind wins)




Take your life, use it

(Heavy with advice, I die

Dispensing wisdom)




Think until you die

Inventing new ideas

To be considered




Sorry ‘bout the mess

At least no stinking pee-pool

Clean it up, live on…




Still think to compose

Ideas into Haiku

Notions from nowhere…




Thoughts are my brushes

With which to paint images

On one’s consciousness




Middle-of-the-night

Pain, a waker-upper with

No leeway for sleep




A discoverer

Of new ways to look at things

Deserves some credit




No need for a hat

To keep the head warm. Fever

Does the trick, thank you




At the end of life

Constant urinary pain

…Cause for suicide




Unending assault

Constant urinary pain

…Suicide excuse




Living by minute

One thinks at a slower rate

Considering fate




The word is the way

To ultimately convey

Innovative thought




Covering the eyes,

The mind is able to see

Past reality




Where to go, what do

Without a life to pursue

In Heaven or Hell




If Heaven exists

One would aspire to go there

Post haste, after death




If Heaven exists

One would aspire to go there

Existing again…




A Biblical tome

Conveys “The Word”—Thought coming

From the mind of God




A mask covering

My eyes from reality

Permits a vision




As Illness pervades

I have nought but time to think

A pencil to write




YOU! Go ahead, write

Finding a venue to spout

What thinking comes forth




Get ready to die

No matter the time or place

After which, You’ll go…




My end is near, so

Looking over horizons

Not un-think-able




Hope the end will come

Trying not to kill myself

But then, living Hell…




I have had a taste

Of the best things in life, so

Death ventures welcome!




If only Death would

Appear unexpectedly

Like a grim SURPRISE!




When it’s time to “buy

The farm” the price is always

Non-negotiable




Real misery comes

In Little bits and pieces

Sneaks on like a cat…




Suicide and pain

(Antibiotics failing)

My work here all done




My own crown of thorns

If only crucifixion

Would come, I’d be gone




Urinary pain

Enervating constantly…

“Hello Death, welcome.”




Going somewhere else

Spirit to inhabit a

Nother soul somewhere




Who in Hell needs sleep

With fires of thought inspiring

Imagination




I believe in God

Know that He is there to help

Inspiring my thought




Poetry might lurk

In your imagination

To pleasure and use




Cover eyes, be blind

Seeing then what lies within

Where musing might lurk




Avenue of pain

Is one that bears exploring

To see what’s ahead




Pain stimulates thought

Forcing one to contemplate

Rather than suffer




Transplant my thinking

To another brain, as though

I could live again…




Intruding upon

Thinking, suffering can be

An unwelcome guest




Intruding upon

Thinking, suffering can be

An unwelcome guest




Transplant my thinking

To another brain, as though

I could live again




Urinary pain

Enervating constantly

“Hello Death, Welcome!”




My own crown of thorns

If only crucifixion

Would come, I’d be gone




Urinary pain

Antibiotics no help

Only one escape…




Martha had Henry

Dad had the right idea

A little store, home…




Going somewhere else

Spirit to inhabit an

Other soul somewhere




Various people

Friends, acquaintances, lovers

Meeting, knowing them




Ice cream beginning

Life of doing, not BE-ing

Finally, writing




Two beautiful wives

Beautiful talented kids

What more could man want…




Life has sure been fun

Got to do a lotta things

Fly, sing, perform, write…




Dying for a “cause”

One wonders if it’s worth it.

Pain? Now you’re talkin’




A Camden platform

Where one can truly inspire

Folks to “Get on board!”




We all have a dream:

“A City Invincible”

Where they can come true




Time to kill the thing

That just won’t leave me alone:

My old sick body




Mind wants to go sleep

Body won’t let me alone

Time to take control




When one’s time runs out

One knows, seeing the signals

That it’s time to go…




Speaking to the world

One never runs out of words

To say, only time




A sense of humor:

An invaluable tool

For dealing with life




What to write about?

Subjects abound. Now here’s one

Urinary pain…




Things to tell about

Never cease, but the writing…

Another story




Once my pencil runs

Out of what to write about

I cease here, move on…




My aim is to get

Another body to live

On to the future




When bodies wear out

Souls decide where to go next

A welcome journey




Suicide’s reason:

Constant unrelenting pain

Permanent relief




Natural cures for

Some medical conditions

Vaccine exposure




Attract attention

Be the life of the party

Say something worthwhile




Have you a lust for

Life that creativity

Spurs to greater heights?




Ending one’s own life

Is not a light decision

But… Choose to suffer?




To consider death’s

External phenomena

Is admitting God




Pleading for death won’t

Bring it on unless something

External happens




To go on and die

Begins a journey to a

Place unknown as yet




Urinary pain

Interferes with everything

Invading thinking




“Why not just go die?”

…As if it were someone’s choice

Not fate accepted




Covering the eyes

One sees in a diff’rent way

Without distraction




Direct from the mind

To the page comes a wisdom

(Lying down, look up…)




After death, what comes

Might then be a great surprise

Then again, might not…




Urinary pain

Is unlike any other

—In pleasure’s center…




Give up indulgence

In actions unproductive

To your aimed-for goals




Go and preach The Word

Messages in limerick

Entertaining, Tell!




Go and preach the word

Straight out of Port Whitman Times

For those a-come-ing




Be a Messiah

For which the world is ready

To be saved again




Give up maryjane

Spend your life constructively

Improving all things




Brain still working good

The rest of body dying

From the bottom up




Family members

Take The Port Whitman Times, do

With it what you will




After death, a trip

To a new place for the soul

To exist again




To Heaven or Hell

One can only imagine

Until going there




I hope what I wrote

Means something to somebody

Who reads and observes




The train goes somewhere

The train of thought somewhere else

Select: travel, dream…




When pain gets too great

Then divorce mind from body

Go separate ways




Thinking, writing down

What one wants to say worthwhile

Considering then…




Thought comes straight from God

To take and use as one might

For good or evil




I flatter myself

By thinking what I might write

Could influence thought




Someone needs to say

What needs to be thought about

True-ly and observed




Still time yet to write

Say what needs saying once more

To hear, read, observe




The Wharton School mind

Thinks in terms of do-able

Things then to be done…




To my progeny:

Don’t take your eye off the ball

Pursue destiny




When Death comes knocking

Either answer the door or

Pay no attention




Urinary pain

Distress, making life a mess

Death a solution




Invent ideas

For readers to think about,

Consider, accept…




Oh my God help me

In the life I live the most

Best that I can be




Antibiotics

Not working, urinary pain!

Frequent, intense




Constant pain, no sleep

Still alive, enduring Hell

Now, not for later




Writing what you know

Will resonate in the mind

That reads, considers




Practical advice

From the Penn Wharton School Mind:

—Use Availables




Being alive is.

Being dead is not being.

Choosing is pleasure




I accuse U.S.

Medical industry of

Greed posing as good




Today is as good

A day as any to do

What needs to be done




Today is as good

A day as any to up

And terminate life




Giving up nought but

Thinking and writing affords

Telling how to DO!




What pleasure it is

Growing old enough to think

Anew, and write it




Paper, pen exist

Begging thought to use them up

Before they shrivel




When it’s time to die

Just go ahead and do it.

What chu waiting for?




Man, an objective

Being old enough to think

And tell, cogently




Pain, no matter which

Non-negotiable item

Having it—Kill it




Pieces of paper

Beg for a pencil to write

Thought from a muser




Writing down your thoughts

Not as easy as you’d think

Them up, imagine




Wanting to die is

Not as easy as you’d think

There’s the where, when, how…




Even with suff’ring

Suicide not an option

Unless pain weighs in




You don’t have to be

A Christ in order to tell

How to run the world




Not invent a thought

Say it in five syllables

Then seven, five more




A Black Messiah

Lifts the Black community

To its potential




Vedra, your job is

Lift the Black community

To its potential




The world needs telling

How to approach and run things

Lest it slip-and-fall




Wandering thru life

I then became a writer

Telling what to do




Go to sleep and die

Everybody’s dream demise

Not always the way




When living life, don’t

Let things get in the way, but

Push them to the side




Once, back in Erie

Grew up in an Ice Cream Store

But Mom wanted more




I love life so much

The imagining, writing

Telling how it is




Nerves won’t let me sleep

Whiskey & pills might do it

Otherwise, the gun




One kind of knows when

Things are coming to the end

Prays, seeks forgiveness




Transmit the message

Saying what needs to be said

Before it’s too late




Children, my children

Go have children of your own

So they can then too




“My Biography:

What I Finally Became”

For the world to read…




What ever happened

To acquaintances of youth

Who we remember?




Lying flat awake

Affords the luxury of

Thinking not doing




A truth set forth in

Poetic thought might ring bells

In the readers’ mind




Haiku: naked thought

Set forth as truth, possible

Advice to readers




We who can write do

What we dream, imagining

What then we all could…




What did we become

Who graduated back then

In the class of yore?




Helen, I just can’t

Love you enough to say a

Final prayer to you




What have I become?

What will you become is next

And they after you…




Peeing in the pool?

Which weighs less? Pee or water?

(A major factor)




I am not perfect

But hope what I write rings true

(Theory, after all)




How to run your life

See my Haiku, Limericks.

Make your decisions




Helen I love you

Tony, Brian, Mila, James

Make me proud, have kids




Death come take me now

Constant urinary pain

Fever, nausea…




A publication

Related to what you do

Satisfies fully




Tony Produce lunch

Brian, Mila, James perform

“The Port Whitman Times”




Use the limericks

To teach not only words but

Thought to go along




Sing the limericks

Improvising tunes to say

What they mean and how




Brian: Performance:

Lincoln Center Limericks

Original Thought




Say something worthwhile

With brains, imagination

Go, tell it somewhere…




Urinary pain

Frequency, constant distress

Ruins existence




What is more to say

Limericks, Haiku, Essay

Review, Opinion




Die, body, die now

While still breathing and alive

Stop going. Soul: LEAVE!




To think, muse, to write

Give advice painting pictures

With words or colors




Have an idea

Develop it furthermore

Publish it for good




In advertising

The LAST thing you want to be

Is cryptic. Be blunt!




Middle of the night

Constant urinary pain

How to deal with it?




Lying and thinking

Truth rises to the top, floats,

Available there




Thoughtfulness, a quest

For innovation in deed

Inventing new paths




Henry’s Ice Cream Store

A thoughtful place given to

Contemplation, plots




Middle of the night

Constant urinary pain,

Fever. Deal with it!




Money for the kids

Freedom from me for Helen

For me from life, pain




If I’m so hateful

Not worth communication

I’ll be what I am




If you hate your Dad

So bad, don’t answer his calls

Then you’re on your own




Children who refuse

To communicate with Dads

Or Moms deserve less




When you WANT to die

Fate is a recalcitrant

Elusive lover




A father so bad

Whose child won’t answer his calls

Rates a lonely death




To be what you are

To the point where it pays off

Is living a life




Go, dream something up.

What are you creative at?

Spark! Innovation!




I think, imagine

With a mask over my eyes

What could possibly…




I live but to write

So, suffer an existence

Contemplating. (Pain)




It’s a living Hell

I never thought I’d go to,

But here you have it…




Henry uses pain

To spur thought speculation

As to what comes next




There is no pain like

Constant urinarial

It’s a living Hell…




I went for a ride

In a stolen car, knowing

Not whose car it was




An alternative:

Choosing to die, not easy

But then, why to live




A choice to suffer…

(The alternative: To die)

(Hmm) Worth considering




In the right places

Opportunities abound

Pick them up, use them




Start online paper

Publish relevant info

Sell advertising




Start an online pub

Not a blog, legitimate

Informational




When I was a boy (girl)

Dancing school was held where we

Partnered, with white gloves




Think, contemplate, muse

When you have an idea

Write it down for us




Burning up, Hell here

Purgatory awaits, then

Finally Heaven




The gun or the pen

Two alternatives beckon

The finals of life




Air conditioning

Life-saving temperature

Keeping hope alive




Finishing up life

A chore not granted to all

Be thankful, write…




Haiku: Nought but thought

An idea organized

Tersely presented




Dying, the ending

Of this life, the beginning

Of another—There




Suffering—a drag

Thinking, then the antidote

Writing, the revenge




Urinary stress

I don’t mind the frequency

But can’t stand the pain




Body, cure thyself

With a daily miracle

God will show the way




To the New York Times:

Consider hiring twelve scribes

For grade and high school




Middle of the night

Thought when one can’t sleep brings forth

Novel verities




Despite what I think

My pain is of no concern

To anyone else




The pencil’s lead begs:

“Use me, use me, I’m right here;

Tell it to the world!”




Urinary pain

Fever, no sleep, thus adios

Creativity…




Urinary pain

Fever, distress,not sleeping

Death preferable




Pencil out of lead

Life run out of usefulness

Death a solution




Please God, take my life

Having written, composed, played

I have had my say




Interestingly

Penile pleasure, penile pain

The highest, lowest




Fourth of July BANG!

Celebration of a life

Lived well, ended QUICK!




“Oh my God my God

Why hast thou forsaken me

In my hour of need?”




A final favor:

Dying quick, not lingering

Have a happy forth…




Nothing like humor

Upon which to end a life

Laughing all the way…




Urinary pain

Frequency to go along

(Life before Heaven)




Good morning my world

Constant urinary pain

Alternative: Death




Figure out a way

To make yourself actively

Useful to the point…




Distractions welcome

From constant self-absorption

(Now then, where was I?)




Almost asleep, then

Suddenly yanked awake by

A nerve reaction




“Holding forth” - An art

Practiced in print by the few

For many to heed




One stops writing things

With paper to run out of

Wisdom goes begging




Here’s the way it is:

Read it. Clap your hands or weep

Then go do it, or…




An “Aha!” moment:

Discovering one can write

Or being told it




Some smiles make us glad

Some make us sad

But those that lift us

Gift us. GAD!




Haiku says something

Penetrating into thought

Exiting as acts




Aspiring Haiku

Hoping to be Limerick

After that—Who knows?




There’s a way to be

That’s above and beyond us—

Heaven with The Lord…




Saying anything

One can put into Haiku

Then Limerick verse




Gauging world’s progress

With time and motion study

—Not a bad idea




Writing directions

Telling the world what to do

—The Wharton School Mind




Hearing the rain beat

Hard against the windows is

Nature’s insistence




Urinary pain

The bane of my existence

Where once was pleasure




Halfway thru the night

Is as far as I can get

Then pain takes over




We each have wisdom

Unique logic to pass on

Nourishing others




We each are destined

To do something meaningful

For the rest of us




Something meaningful

Can be said on a small scrap

Of paper to keep




Some bugs eat boogers

Or turn up their own noses

At trash from others’ skull




Advice is easy

To give, to take, but to do…

Another matter




Find “How to do things”

By doers who’ve adventured

To unknowns and won




Here it is, reader

In print, musical, cartooned.

Observe what it says.




In writing, one tries

In some way to be clever

Getting points across




Times change, thought remains

Changing behavior - Or not

Affecting results




Many things remain

(And as such need to be said)

Benefiting man




John The Baptist told

Jesus what to go and do

With His Divine Gift




“Holding forth,” declare

“This is the way that it is!”

(Look around for “No’s”)




One who holds forth bares

Opinions to consider

Subject to dismiss




“Holding forth” in print

Elucidates opinion

On worthwhile subjects




A one-trick-body

Staying alive just to pee

Robbing me of sleep




The zest of power

Overcomes debt of duty

Unfortunately…




A gift from The Lord

Is the wisdom to discern;

From there, deciding




Aspire to wisdom

Then achieving it becomes

A matter of time




One never thinks one

Will ever get to the point

Where one wants to die




Wharton School logic

(Depending on perspective)

Can take us far. Or…




Imagination

Surpasses thought’s boundaries

With its own logic




A Hitler has a

Point, just going about it

In a clumsy way




Narrowing one’s thought

Haiku brings a perspective

To a pungent point




Verbal therapy

Words have the power to cure

With new perspective




Moving one’s pillow

To a cooler spot offers

A new perspective




The morning arrives

Bearing optimism’s glow

—Platter from a dream




Tired of suffering

One considers suicide

(Considers) Reasonable end




Pain has a way of

Taking over existence

Dominating life




How to run your life:

Do what’s right, flirt with what’s not

Experiment. Be…




A garden of weeds

Nothing of use up-growing

Time to buy the farm…




Dietary tip

Don’t drink whiskey lying down

…Burns the esophagus




Think of something else

Nothing like good food to take

Minds away from pain




If it can be done

Transplant my mental process

To someone to use




Teach my heir to read

Using what I have written…

Francisco logic




Quite a consignment

Constant urinary pain

“Oh my God, I am…”




Haiku is but one

Thought set forth in but three lines

To then be observed




Haiku is nought but

Thought set forth as truthfulness

To then be observed




A skinny body

Brain raised up on comic books

(Good combination!)




Comic book logic

Imagines idealistic

Solutions to use




Realism, Ho-hum

Set forth as historical

Fact to be followed




I am imperfect

But my mind can imagine

How it ought to be




What I try to set

Forth is now the way-it-is

How it ought to be




Don’t forget Henry

Read what he has written down

Inspired by The Lord




I don’t want to go

Any place or see any-

Body from now on




My soul lingers to

Inhabit a Francisco

When one comes along




Life, not worth living

Constant urinary pain

…Going somewhere else




Souls come and they go

Seek bodies in which to live

Institute new lives




Death but a blank slate

Despite predictions of what

Might then be coming




Constant distressing

Pain singing my life refrain

Death you are welcome




Reincarnation

I.E. re-installation

Into another…




Do what you can do

Till you can’t do anymore

Then lie down and die




One only needs a

Vocabulary enough

To speak or write thoughts




Urinary pain

It’s hard not to concentrate

On anything but…




Urinary pain

Urinary frequency

Urinary distress




Writer sham battle

Displayed in time for dying

Before going on




Needing to presume

Writers need to imagine

Readers read and heed




Writer needs focus

On something besides himself

To speak uniquely




Writing needs a form

‘long with imagination

Thought artistic’ly




Fever receding

Pain comes on and takes over

For the daytime shift…




Writing, distraction

From suffering in old age

(Still contributing…)




Paper there to write

Thoughts even while suffering

…Opportunity!




We who give advice

Try to think of optimum

Ways to live a life




How to live your life:

Consider advice. Take it

Or go on your own




A blank slate exists

Upon which to write one’s thoughts

Advising others




Burning up now, so

Scorch my soul before I die

Equaling Hell’s fires




A final message:

Do the most of what you can

While you’re still alive




Let’s see… Pain, fever

Urinary frequency

Thus no sleep, so…Death




Think of something else?

Laughable. When pain grips you

Nothing else exists




I am burning up

Urinarily, the fire

I cannot put out




If to do one thing

You were sent here by The Lord

What would that thing be?




Some people live for

Things, others purely for thought.

There are those who DO




Independence pays

As long as one can remain

“Head above water”




I am burning up

Hell on earth my punishment

Better Hell later




Cannot sleep again

Constant urinary pain

Solution: The Gun




Do just what you want

Regardless of what others

Do, then accomplish




To live then to die

Simple. Having seen the world

As it was, now is




Speak up! Write it down

What you have to say is worth

Consideration




Writing solution:

Finding the exact words to

Write down and be read




Wisdom dispensing

The Henry Family Business

Nee the Franciscos




Culled from conscious thought

Wisdom emerges to be

Now considered, then…




Wisdom emerges

When one thinks and writes it down

For the world to see




Finally we have

A forum for the world to

Consider, “Thinking”




Thinking up wisdom

Write down what you have to say

For the world to heed




Paper, pencil, write,

Publish, saying to the world

“Listen up! Observe…”




Haiku’s are but thoughts

Expanded to conclusions

Noting relevance




There is always “IF”

“If I could this or could that

Then this or that would…”




I love existing

It’s just that when hurting comes

I want to cease both




Opportunity

Knocks only infrequently

So, when it does, GO…




On the verge of death

Grammar dustbin phrases go

On to oblivion




The pen my revenge

Against end-of-life with pain

Writes H. John Henry




Idea sham-battle

Explodes early in the day

When thought’s ignited




Many parts in life

Are played, transmitting thinking

To be then observed




Ability to

Write down messages is a

God-given talent




Brain still functioning

Even though the body fails

Thus “Raison d’être”




To live is to write

Thus transmitting messages

To those who can read




Haiku has a way

Of replacing existing

Discomfort with now…




Stated in Haiku

“This is the way that it is!”

(Not to be denied)




To live is to write

Thus to transmit a message

From my God to you




We spend our whole lives

Managing to avoid pain

When and if it comes




I am burning up

My Hell is right here, right now

(“Please God, forgive me”)




Plenty of subjects

No point in ignoring pain

Dwell on something else




When a pain persists

Try then to concentrate on

Something constructive




Living jut to write

Enduring pain, ideas

Brought to the forefront




History arrests

Evil, saves it from itself

Then time marches on…




Urinary pain

Un-relenting, no relief

Solution: Kill it…




The penis pleasure

Can easily turn to pain

By a little germ




American Med

For the sole benefit of

Doctors, not patients




Pain, nought but hurting

Full time 100%

Vida finita




Burning up Hell here

Final sin to come right here

I love you Helen




Pain, distress, no sleep

Pray the Lord my soul to keep

Goodbye to the world




Brief respite, now pain

Is back with a vengeance

On life lived before




I am a writer

Saying what needs to be said

At least in my mind




Thought that comes to mind

Deserves expansion, or then

Again maybe not




Nervous twitching

Keeps awake all night

Answer: Suicide




Hanging on to strands

Of life in order to write

Has its benefits




U. S. Medicine

Capital sin, by the way:

A matter of Greed




Take the money spent

On Health Care advertising

Give Health to people




Antibiotics

Held hostage by the doctors

Ransomed by patients (suckers)




The Mafia could

Not have done it better than

Our Health Care racket




Words are the weapons

Civilized people employ

To right wrongs, wrong rights




Controlling people

Is preventing from harming

Allowing freedom




The seer says, till

Running out of things to see

And say to BE seen




When you can’t sleep, write

Things you might be seeing in

Dreamland’s perspective




One can learn to find

The things that thinkers think when

Out beyond limits




What is creative?

Is it the brain or spirit

Freed from Earthly Bonds?




Some Brains consider

Anything, going on to

Speculate, create…




The addled brain has

Its perks able to venture,

Think outside the box




The World and what was

Passes on constantly to

Become what will be




All one has to do

Is open one’s eyes to see

What is going on




“Crooked Hillary”

Name-calling President Trump

Try it on Putin




New Ideas come

But then are hard to capture

Need a mental net




Constant pain not good

For the attitude of life

Makes one want to die




Try to contribute

Thru pain, illness, discomfort

To life’s duration




Is there somewhere a

Natural urinary

Cleansing food or drink




I am merely a

Pipeline through which the word of

God is transmitted




I imagine what

God would say if He now spoke

On how to run things




When our God inspires

Communication, it

Matters not who writes it




Someone needs to tell

In an acceptable way

How to run The World




Perform the hymnals

There’s gold in Them There Heavens

Begging to be mined




How much suffering

Is required to atone for

One’s committed sins?




There comes a time when

All one can think about is

Moving to new life




Reincarnation

No matter where one’s spirit

Can go to make good




Reincarnation:

I’ll go on to the next life

Get back in touch then…




Mila play my tunes

Brian spout my limericks

Tony Teach Haiku




Helen don’t allow

The Port Whitman Times to die

Paying it forward




Irregardless of

Constant urinary pain

Life can still go on




The mind imagines

What could possibly be, then

Communicates it




Going to next life

Wondering what exists there

Guess I’ll find out soon




My Hell here on Earth:

Urinary pain does it

Better than later…




Saying sensible

Things in an entertaining

Way is ones metier




When pain strikes bear it

As though you don’t even care

That it claims your life




When living with pain

End it in whatever way

At your disposal




To my people (!)

I love you all, even you

(You know who you are)




Burning up, fever

Urinary pain, no sleep

Unending distress




Life with no limits…

Existing on the edges

Of a disaster




It’s not a matter

Of who you be, but the terms

Upon which you think




Possibilities:

A matter of terms upon

Which one is thinking




To preserve the world

Think on operatic terms

Then go and do it




Hitler had the right

Idea: “Be a Messiah”

But something went wrong




Not “literature”

I grew up on comic books

But… I read them all




What would a writer

Say if he (she) were called upon

To write… The Bible?




God speaks through Henry

Who writes down what The Lord Says

To be read by you




Vedra, attractive

Well-educated, hip, faux…

Be a Messiah!




I am not a saint

But those who wrote the Bible

Were but writers, no?




Many are smarter

But no Son Of ’51

(Cathedral Prep, Erie, Pa)

Is more creative




Mila play my tunes

Brian recite my poems

Tony spread my word




Healthy, one can do

Whatever occurs to one

In circumstances




My words cry out to

Be performed, so those who hear

Can be enlightened




At age eighty-four

My brain thinks, imagines things

To be written down




Inventing a thought

Say something in a new way

Spurring conjectures




Write haiku, make sense

Saying something in a way

Unstated so far…




What better to do

In old age than to transmit

One’s acquired wisdom




Words, transmitting thought,

Suggest some alternatives

To consider first




Lyrics, limericks

Haiku… They are something to

Think about, ponder




Giving things away

Is one of life’s great pleasures

Not to be denied




Writing lying down

Has its advantages for

Thinking things up




Urinary pain

Distress making your life a

Mess to be dealt with




Twenty-four hours

Available for sleeping…

What more could one ask?




Wharton School minds think

Alike, or do they just muse

On how to make cash?




Urinary pain

A choice. Lucky to have the

Way to end it now




Writing eases pain

Forcing concentration on

What to say and how




Urinary pain

A choice (!) not so much for some

Who have to endure




Hell here burning up

With fever, and no relief

Seppuku my choice




Novel thoughts that come

To mind expressed logic-ly

Are inspiration




Last chance to compose

Eight o’clock is coming on

Hurry up, say it!




High in the stirrups

The jockey, riding above

Is merely a guide




God continues on

Creating worlds, perfecting

Species, like people…




Morning arises

With opportunity to

Make significance




The start of the day:

The best time to go become

What you’re gonna be




Lying down thinking

The blood flows right to the brain

Creativity!




Haiku thought opens

Develops a point of view

Concludes with a slant




In writing, one can

Eliminate circumstance,

Concentrate on thought




Life be’s what it is

Making its own way along

Through circumstances




Thought of the moment

A prey in a place and time

Capture it… or not




Other than pain are

Better things to think about

Food, fun, sex, writing




Urinary pain

Just the usual again!

Why-on-Earth-live? But…




Lying down, look up

Standing up, look out, and then

Perspective appears




The New Bible tome

A book of inspirations

In this time of hope




Mister President

Go forward, not in reverse

Travel heights unknown




What would a writer

Say if he were called upon

To write The Bible?




Milo, play my tunes

Brian, recite my poems

Tony, spread my word…




Urinary pain

Distress, making one’s life a

Mess to be dealt with




Write Haiku, make sense

Saying something in a way

Un-stated so far…




“Crooked Hillary”

Name-calling President Trump

Try it on Putin…




Some brains consider

Anything going on to

Speculate, create




The world and what was

Passes on constantly to

Become what will be




The addled brain has

Its perks, able to venture

Think outside the box




All one has to do

Is open one’s eyes to see

What is going on




Hell is here! I am

Burning up right in my bed

At home, in comfort




Regardless of the

Constant urinary pain

Life can still go on…




Helen don’t allow

The Port Whitman Times to die

Paying it forward…




Milo play my tunes

Brian tell my limericks

Tony teach haiku




Reincarnation—

I’ll go on to the next life

Get back in touch, then…




Reincarnation

No matter where one’s spirit

Can go to make good




New ideas come

But then are hard to capture

Need a mental net




When logic exists

Beyond that, inspiration

Lurks waiting for use




Circumstances lead

Through logical progressions

To apt conclusions




Things be what they are

Situations existing

Result: conclusions




When it’s time to move

Lose sentimentality

Adopting good sense




There is no one else

Who grew up reading nought but

Comic books, then wrote




Anything can be

Comedy or tragedy

Resting on viewpoint




Comics are funny

Through a process of leading

To absurdity




At age eighty-four

My brain still thinks, imagines

To then go write down




Healthy, one can do

Whatever occurs to one

In circumstances




My words cry out to

Be performed, so those who hear

Can be enlightened




God speaks through Henry

Who writes down what The Lord Says

To be read by you…




Constant pain not good

For the attitude of life…

(Makes one want to die)




Life with no limits

Is living on the edges

Of a disaster




Burning up, fever,

Urinary pain, no sleep

Constant distress




When living with pain

End it in whatever way

At your disposal




Try to contribute

Through pain, illness, discomfort

Poetry, advice




It’s not a matter

Of who you be, but the terms

Upon which you think




Possibilities:

A matter of terms upon

Which one is thinking




To preserve the world

Think on operatic terms

Then go and do it!




Hitler had the right

Idea… Be a messiah

But something was wrong




Not “literature”

I grew up on comic books

But… I read them ALL




I am not a saint

But those who wrote the Bible

Were but writers, no?




Many are smarter

But no son of ’51

Is more creative




Inventing a thought

Say something in a new way

Spurring conjecture




Wharton School minds think

Alike or do what they muse:

How to make money…




Writing eases pain

Forcing concentration on

What to say and how




Giving things away

Is one of life’s great pleasures

Not to be denied




Foolish to condemn

Sexual preferences

Being what they are




The subject of pain

Not so pleasant to address

Comes, nevertheless




Is there anything

Worse than urinary pain?

(At least the pee comes…)




Do we know we have

A quixotic president

Who could destroy all?




Running government

Isn’t a game that you play

To win or to lose




This Trump is in charge

Of making a decision

To blow up the world




Impeachment needed

When officials overstep

The bounds of good taste




An idealism

To fight practicality

Needs peoples’ support




A dangerous man

In charge of a government

Can ruin a state




The art of the deal

Could therefore spur an ideal

Brought to state level




Ev’ryone born is

Given a gift to be used

For the good of all




The body is a

Manufacturing process

—Food to energy




A messiah is

Not a person but a thought

From God to people




The World clamors for

A messianic writer

Ere it wrecks itself




Sans John The Baptist

Jesus would not have emerged

As The Messiah




Thank you for the gifts

And the ability to

Use them ere I die




If you don’t do it

Someone will take the challenge

If it’s to be done




Dream, fantasizing

Go beyond reality

Stirring hearts and minds




Vedra Chandler, The

Gospel Singer, purveyor

Of The Word of God




You’ve sung for thousands

Once stung by your performance

Ever effected




Go, speak. For money.

Groups pay you to deliver

A meaningful word




Jesus had John The

Baptist who started Him on

The Messiah Road




One has to go be

A Messiah, not wait for

It to come around




That voice can sing, preach

Awaken souls to action

Having an effect




Your mission in here

Where your voice is needed now

To stir reaction




Why spend your talent

Going afar, singing for

Itinerant crowds?




This Messiah is

Something one has to go out

And BE without shame




This Messiah starts

With the people around her

Arousing, stirring




Then to constructive

Action, behavior with a

Road to travel down…




Come to your senses

Giving up what affects them—

For the good of life




Think up something new

To distract from pain distress

Haiku? Poetry?




Distraction, the key

To counteracting pain, the

Mind goes somewhere else




If only to have

Enough room to write down thoughts

Strength to think them up




Cannot remember

From one moment to the next

Gotta invent new…




Henry: Think about

Something else to assuage the

Urinary Pain




Urinary pain

Strong, constant, unrelenting

Distress, life a mess




The Book Of Henry

With haikus and limericks

Suitable to quote




In teens and twenties

The age of raging hormones

Use them to create…




Noises of the street

Reverberate through windows

Into peoples’ minds




Messiah wanted

To preach God’s word to people

With receptive minds




To be able to

Write—A God-given talent

To use in His way




Erie, small enough

Social levels visible

From one’s bicycle




Live, observe, indulge

Grab knowledge from what you see

Draw apt conclusions




Erie PA, the

Perfect place to encounter

All levels of life




Writing: something to

Think about, distracting from

The pain of illness




Holding pain hostage

Doc’s hawk for drug companies

For a commission…




Pleased with what I’ve done

If my heart would only stop

That would be enough




Sounds of life emerge

As any city starts up

It’s daily routine




Thoughts occur, don’t they?

Write them down if you think they’re

Worth remembering




Lie awake and write

So who needs sleep anyway?

It’s only life, death…




They’ve figured a way

To get into your head when

You go search online




Lie there and write thoughts

So, who needs sleep anyway

Perspective wins out




Written, in the drawer

Thoughts have come, shined, then

To posterity




To be a person

Then, in midlife change to be

Another person




Ah! Life’s great pleasure:

To lie in bed and write what

One sees as wisdom




Concentrating on

Other than one’s maladies

Allows perspective




Life’s totality:

Perspective, how one sees things

Then acts upon them




Life: Drama, ice cream

Adventure, pleasure, some pain

All-in-all great fun




Having said my say

I bid you all adieu now

Bon chance, have fun, live!




Yeah, so what, Henry

You went here, did that, lived long

But then…What you wrote!




La vie de Henri:

Adventure, going where few

Might dare to trespass




Creativity

Absent when pain takes over

C’est la vie, Henri




To be a success

Zero in on exactly

What you want to be




NCT concept:

Immediacy, what the

Courier can’t provide




Think I’m old? Feeble?

I don’t think about sex? Wrong!

Thinking’s the best part




To be a success

Give up every thing but

What you want to be




Think I’m a dirty

Old man? Of course! We can still

Imagine ourselves…




Flouted with beauty

We touch as much of it as

We possibly can




What will life after

Life be like? One can only

Muse, if one believes




Pain can only be

Tolerated so long, then

One wants to end it




Thought needs to be said

To everyone whose logic

Can comprehend it




Wanted: translator

Is there a program for that,

Is it yet to be?




Now it’s time to die

I did my do, had my say

What is next will come




The world needs writers

To conceive for do-ers to

Go and accomplish




I try to create

Thought out of thin air, where God

Exists for us all




Time to die gone by

Have to live another day

Telling how it is




Lying down, look up

Why preoccupy with death?

Just do it or don’t




Same forty-two, my

Birth time and my death-time too

Then to up-and-go…




Pages still remain

To then be written upon

Saying, telling to…




Que sera sera

Whatever will be will b e

Hoping for the best




Closing up The Store

My Henry’s Ice Cream in print

My do, done, say said




It’s getting boring

For you too, I’ll bet, reading

Thought about my pain




Done what I wanted

Said what I wanted to say

…Re-incarnation…




Write, play, perform, teach

Tony, Mila, Brian, James

Live long and happy…




Starting to repeat

Myself saying things I said

Many years before…




Pillow full of sweat

Constant urinary pain

Living just to write




Writing: distraction

But constant urinary

Pain returns. A drag!




Pain isn’t so bad

It’s cure-able, bear-able

Unless it’s constant!




Writers: Figure out

A way to say what you want

Lying down in bed




Opportunity:

Tony: Use my limericks

In teaching English




Opportunity:

Mila (James) play my music

None other like it…




Brian go recite my

Poems in Lincoln Center

Opportunity!




Write till you run out

Of thought. But waitaminute…

Thinking won’t stop till…




Henry’s final words:

If you haven’t read me by

Now, you never will




American Doc’s

Money movers, us to them

(Unconscionable)




Love to all: Helen

Mila, Tony, Brian, James

Earth (Read what I wrote)




Just unrelenting

Constant urinary pain

Says “It’s time to die!”




Haiku is nought but

A single thought with a twist

Contained in its gist




There is a reason

Two brothers don’t get along

Differing viewpoints?




Hey! Death, anytime

You want to make yourself known

Welcome to my fate…




Nervous energy

Only lasts so long, and then

Sleep finally comes




Who will  care for you

When you get old and infirm?

Better have someone…




Writing: distraction

From any kind of a pain

(Mind over matter)




Creativity

Is something acquired and used

Throughout existence




Adolescent choice:

Who to become in one’s life

Then going ahead…




“How to run your life”

Hmm… Advice easy to give

From afar. Take? Or…




Idea—Haiku—

Limerick—Article—To

Spark a reaction




Writing’s distraction

Makes suffering easier

(Thought substitution)




“Here’s how to live life…”

Saith the philosopher

(Easy to think up)




Dilemma with pain:

Whether to keep on living

Or end it right now




Burn up in my Hell

Body, then Heaven awaits—

There to be gone to




Death cannot be smooth

In old age one lingers on

Nix-ing giving up




To write, create thought

For a reader to perceive:

Ultimate reward




Bodies come apart

If they live long enough to

Just disintegrate




Life becomes a mess

Urinary pain, distress

Solution: End it!




In living, give in

To impulses that donate

Benefits to flesh




How to run your life

Safe to tell, but go figure

How to manage Death




It makes common sense

To kill one’s self in private

Un-spectacular…




Who’s the idealist?

Tony? Brian? Mila? James?

To run with the ball…




Now’s Jesus would have

Started a publication

Message-ing online




The Port Whitman Times

Saying what needs to be said

To the world-at-large




Anything can be

Said in a haiku poem

For a grain of sense




“Do unto others

As you, then would have them do

Unto you” — Jesus




Limerick music:

Some combination of a

One-six-two-five-four




Spend some time lying

Listening to melodies

Playing in your head




Lying down, look up

At ceilings, skies, attitudes;

Get a perspective




The wrong way to look

At things might sometime give

Unique perspective




The way to get to

Heaven is do-the-right-thing

When it comes to choice




He’s got smoke coming

From his exhaust telling us

“Where there’s smoke there’s fire!”




Demise management

A wide-open field right now

Especially one’s own




Go do what you can

The very best, no matter

What the prize may be




How to run your life

Easy to say, but not so

How to do your death




“Hello Death” I say

“Hello” trepidatiously

With my head spinning




Death doesn’t barge in

But peeks around the corner,

Says: “Are you ready?”




I lived to have fun

You should too, finding something

To fascinate you




Oh Lord give me strength

To bear the life I’m given

Right up to the end




At Henry’s Ice Cream

We made a living out of

The good things in life




When pain takes over

Can’t think of anything else

Only answer: Death!




Thinking up new things

Is what life is all about

Ev’r day a boon!




Life is on its way

Other things to think about

Living, inventing




Sleep won’t come, but thought

Continues, plodding away

Plotting solutions




Answers to problems

Lie in Haiku pronouncements

“Tell it like it is!”




Thinking up, I am

Creative in my own way

(Cosmic solutions)




The nervous system

Yanks one’s consciousness awake

From dream-land to pain




With paper and pen

One can create what one thinks

Will benefit man




Art triumphs over

Mundane living, giving spice

To bland existence




An endless supply

Of Haiku is a resource

To pluck ideas from




Penile pleasure puts

One on a different plane

At least for the nonce




Free to roam about

The morning mind can delve in

To any subject




Original minds

Come up with new solutions

To old dilemmas




The mind is prodded

To sheer inspiration from

Omni Stimuli




The world is prodded

By external stimuli

To act thereupon




Inventing new thought

Available. Anyone

Can participate




Inventing new thought

On a whole range of subjects

—Man’s prerogative




If only to have

Enough paper to write on

—Ideas spring forth




Pain! Urinary…

The worst kind, hurting to pee

Answer: Suicide!




When pain invades life,

How to alleviate it

Becomes a mission




When one can’t think of

Anything to cover pain

One’s life is over!




Civilization

Said to be mankind’s reward

But what about pain?




Worrying fever

Lying there concentrating

On it makes it worse




Starving a fever

Using nought but will power

Imagination?…




By using the brain

One can counteract fever

(Mind over matter)




Writing cools the brain

Creating efficiency

Thinking-out fever




Using my fever

Writing with a heated brain

Henryfficiency




I am, therefore write

When I will be, or won’t be

You can still read me




No matter where I

End up going after I

Die, Okay… Aye-aye!




Urinary pain

Too much minute-to-minute

Stabbing my penis




Writing, creating

Thought reduces fever, pain

—Natural relief




Lying in the bed

Worrying, concentrating

On pain makes it worse




Thinking, using heat

Creating mental pictures

Fights pain and fever




What ever happened

To this one or that one?

Gone up There… or down?




While the rest of the

World lives on, one dies, one’s born

Heaven takes, Hell burns




Hurting, burning up

Pissing keeping me awake

Ready to die now




But then, things to do

Keep popping up demanding

Attention be paid




To write, be able…

Express opinion, fancy

Directing the world…




If only one thinks

It then leads to expression

In words or action




So-called jazz players

End up merely doing scales

Uncreatively




One does what one does

Afterwards having regrets

Of guilty pleasure




My body wants to

Hang on a lot longer than

The rest of me does




Don’t linger too long

In lyrical indulgence

Lest subjects get bored




Henry rhythmic licks

Accompany limericks

—Musical background




Just not good with pain

Intellectual stuff: “Poof!”

I can handle that




Sleep refuses me

I seem to be burning up

My Hell is here, now…




Hard to write Haiku

Telling things the way they are

Pain gets in the way




Stick a pin in me

I’m sure the juices will spurt

When properly cooked




I am burning up

Being cooked to the limit

Of my endurance




Act seriously?

Not on your tintype, buddy.

Life is but a dream…




Unable to sleep

Burning up with a fever

Urinary pain




Said what was needed

Wrote it down for folks to see

Then observe or not




Too old for suff’ring

Had all the pain I wanted

Now on to the next




Eras of sunshine

Accompanied by rain, snow

—Summer and Winter




New Ideas came

And went but first were written

For posterity




Burning up, my Hell

Happening right here and now

…Saves God the trouble…




Life has surely been

A tasty fun smorgasbord

…Would not have missed it




Death welcome, pain gone

My ideas all stated

To be considered




There will be no me

Once I’m gone, but what I said

Remains to be seen




Forgive me if I

Subtract my body from this

Life and ceaseless pain




An ideal outcome:

If one could will oneself dead

“Heart! Stop your beating!”




Life is a blank page

Upon which we write a tale

Of our own design




Urine, like syrup

Accompanies final thought

Slow but sure—painful




My hell here burning

Body afire with fever

Doctors hold hostage




Mila: Henry genes

Say with talent “Improvise!”

Explore tonal roads




I did everything

Till it got to be boring

Then chose another




Let me make this clear:

My choice: life without distress

(But not in the cards…)




I’m being tortured:

Fever, penile pain, no sleep

I’m going Elsewhere…




Tired of being sick

Look forward to being dead

Then to get some peace




Let me see, which ones

Of my contemporaries

Have I now outlived




Can’t sleep, lie awake

Urinary pain the boss

Answer: Suicide…




Flowers stand up straight

Emerge, bloom, emit perfume

Persists, wilts, then dies




Creative writing

Requires editing to shape

To read-able ness




The mind is sharpest

Imagination peaking

Upon awaking




If only to die

When pain and old age descend

Leaving thought behind




So what! Only pain

Not as if you’ve gone to Hell

Suck it up! Think! Write!




My pen is my gun

Firing thoughts into the minds

Of those who’re victims




Kinder: Life is an

Adventure. Take advantage

Sing prima voce




Not a great writer

But thinker, imaginer

Stating fact as truth




The fires of my Hell

Are burning me up right here

Before I escape




I have been stirred by

The Spirit of Walt Whitman

My own remains here




What I think I write

My thinker-upper active

Early in the morn




Left behind: the voice

Of a Henry Francisco

Written down to hear…




To write, say one’s say

Publicly entertaining

Is Heaven on Earth




To take one’s own life

A decision of import

Not taken lightly




Please don’t feel sorry

If I decide to kill me

…My own decision




My soul longs to go

To Heaven but my body

Refuses to die




Pillow soaked with sweat

Unable to get some sleep

Death come rescue me…




In the acting game

The secret is “becoming”

Different, unique…




Actor’s way to fame:

Giving away limericks

In New York City




I believe my soul

Transcends my body. Up? Down?

Better another…




Urinary pain

Distress making life a mess

Alternative: Death




Even if Jesus

Was only a man, does that

Lessen what He did?




There is nothing you

Can do with the help of drugs

You can’t do without




Old-age ravages

Befall those who survive to

Enjoy or suffer




My Dream: The Henrys

Singing, playing Gospel Songs

Starting in Princeton




Medicine no help

Always back to the same thing:

My Hell here on Earth




Ideas are like kids

There are none so wonderful

As one’s progeny




Life here is over

There must be a better way

To travel with God




Women: Run The World

You can figure out a way

Without killing us




I’m ready to die

But just haven’t figured out

How to do it yet




“Fly me to The Moon”

So I can live among clouds

Along with spirits




I’m waiting to die

But with modern medicine

It’s a long long line…




Seppuku: A death

Dictated by life’s owner

Controller of fate…




Urinary pain

Distress make my life a mess

Alternative: Death




Think up something new

Relating to what you do

Write down its advice




Antidote to pain:

Thought expression written down

Now sense goes onward




Thoughts come, go away

Unless you capture them now

Cage them, written down




Sense! Think. Imagine

Go to forbidden places

Come to conclusions




Let a thought pursue

Its own direction, going

Where it wants to find…




Drugs steer behavior

They let you be what you are…

Cards fall where they may




Innovation strikes

Sometimes when one least expects

Providing answers…




Imagination:

Creating blank slates, writing

Thought to contemplate




Urinary pain!

Making life not worth living

Panacea: Death (Hmm…)




Worry a booger

Till it finally becomes

A ballagoola




Nothing like ice cream

To stir the thinking process

Gilding the taste buds




Pain comes with thinking

Part of a mental process

Grinding metaphors




Solutions exist

Any and all conundrums

Beg resolution




Upon thinking, doubt

Cogitate, consider sense

Then come to conclude




Things to think about…

A wide variety exists.

Upon thinking, write!




No relief in sight

Constant urinary pain

Seppuku Honto!




No relief in sight

Constant urinary pain

Sleep is but a dream




Some thought comes from the

Silver tongue of The Devil

(To be considered)




Musing, cogitate

Attempt to capture wisdom

Ere it flies away…




Writing, all over

(Constant urinary pain)

A Dios… I hope




Poetry cures pain

Proposing reason for thought

Entertaining words




I seem to be good

At thinking up and writing

Down good ideas




Go, be Franciscos

Creators of thought, word, tune

Then writing it down




Being what they are

Things proceed to where they will

Lacking decision




Even in pain, one

Can think, oft even better

Using avoidance




Haiku is thought thought

Out to a poetic form

Writ to consider




Hmm. Oddly enough

Writing counteracts disease

Thought replacing pain




I thank God for my

Gift: being able to write

Making common sense




Even with pain, life’s

A precious gift to thinkers

But then, aren’t we all?




Thinking, creating

Enjoying. Giving it up?

A reluctant choice




The thing that keeps me

From dying is writing down

What I am thinking




I write better when

I suffer, the pain bringing

Forth raw thought to bear




Cruel worlds beget

Bitterness as by-products

Spawn unhappiness




Things to think about

Can replace pain ev’ry time

Concentration works!




I have lived a life

Flown, sang, wrote, composed, produced

Which I now bequeath




To die to music:

Heavenly ambience brought

Forth as audition




As I pass away

The waft of my bread communes

Between me and God




When all I can do

Is lie in bed and suffer

Then I welcome death




Once your say is said

Let the words take their effect

Sit back, see results




Urinary pain

Unrelentingly constant

(I have had my say)




There’s a time to die

When life has ceased becoming

And winds down to not…




There’s a time to live

It’s now while wheels are turning

Even losing speed




Good music makes sense

With a logic all its own

Entice-ing the ear




Don’t let go of life

Now with still a grip on it

Clutch it by the balls




What does one do when

One gets to the point where one

Simply wants to die?




We enjoy being

So to die and be no more

Goes against our grain




Just wanting to die

And killing one’s self are two

Distinct reactions




When dying, dealing

With pain is a quandary

To be avoided




“Represent the king!”

Holding radio hostage

To his point of view




Getting through the night

Arriving in the morning

One greets a new day




To kill or to write:

A choice for those who run things,

Care about people




The time to write: NOW

When ideas come before

They pass, fade away




Pain comes with movement

So, playing dead, just thinking

Is its own reward




To be other than

What one is when constant pain

Presents: A new role!




Think of more pleasant

Things rather than pain, distress

(Sex, Ice Cream, Helen)




There seems no relief

Constant urinary pain:

My Hell here on Earth…




Surgeons: mechanics

With body parts instead of

Nuts and bolts, nor thoughts




Dying can be fun

Even if its slow, as long

As pain stays away




One sees what one wants

To see regardless of what

There is or might be




Lying in bed, one

Only has to think and see

What one can conjure




Are you capable

Of thought sans any limits?

Then imagine. Think!




With eyes closed, one sees

Beyond horizons to thoughts

Of what there might be




There are many things

One cannot be forever.

Writer is not one…




One grows up, becomes

Something more, or another

Spirit unforeseen




Ideas come, go…

Written for posterity

Or not. Found, or lost…




A light switches on

In the philosopher’s mind

…A new Idea!




Seeing things as they

Might be, one has to sepa-

rate them from one’s life




In order to write

I had to separate My

Self from my conscience




Thinking is something

Writing, what I imagine

—The comic-book mind




Nought but only thought

Which ought to be enough taught

But then… There’s a plot




Pencil: Golden Wand

With which to do wordy tricks

Verbal magic (Poof!)




Remember my life

Read my writing (Says it all)

That I could think up…




Helen my angel

Companion, lover, muse, mom

What more could one want?




Thought is only that.

But writing, composition

Sets forth what needs told




Golden pencil, say

What’s in my mind set forth words

Truth or fantasy




Verbal sonata

Spins a tune that plays something

To both ears and minds




Imitating God

Create that which humans can

See, hear, touch, smell, taste




Titans of tunes compose

Melodic phrase to hum, play,

Stick in hearers minds




The things we do when

We don’t know what we’re doing

Come back to haunt us




The killshfot or jump

Meeting The Lord afterwards

“Why couldn’t you wait?”




Suicide—easy

But deciding—There’s the rub

Leaving what’s here—gone…




Do it yourself death:

Not that hard to accomplish

A shot, jump, poison…




Maybe God only

Made so many souls and we

Must seek new bodies




In our new bodies

We exist where we are born

Living there, and then




Like Plants, our souls’ seeds

Regenerate in bodies

Seeding them at birth




Environment’s seeds

Sprout, grow, mature, develop

Into what to BE




When we BE, we ARE,

Choosing roads to travel down

To destiny THERE




Destiny beckons

Each of us to choose to go

This way, that, or not…




World! Here’s what to do:

Set forth poetically

Enjoy, live by it…




The book of advice:

Here is how to run your life

Thought out, written down




Other ways of life

Exist, from which to go choose

Thus a path appears




As you live, a path

Appears, which then is chosen

…With consequences




War: unthinkable

Faced with today’s weaponry

Somehow get along…




Telling truth in verse

Stating there what needs be said

Entertainingly




From the moment we’re

Born we are waiting to die

But while we do, ACT!




I have preached my word

Wrote it all down for reading

Now, it’s time to die…




So I take my life

Given 1934

Used for good purpose




Bombs are obsolete

Thou Shalts and Shalt Nots remain

So wherefore art they?




The Port Whitman Times

Is God’s communication

Advising The World




Kinder, take this gold

Pencil and write what the world

Needs to read, and heed




Things need to be said

Tony, Brian, Mila, James:

Explain to the world!




To love life is to

Exercise the five senses

See, hear, taste, touch, smell




My body’s broken

But my heart remains alive

Kicking, pumping blood




Too much pain to bear

Tired of dealing with distress,

Going onto next…




Going to being

Another person with a

Brand new body there




Life, like a Haiku

Opens, develops, ripens,

Finally concludes…




When rain is over,

Earth is washed and time proceeds

Anew to what comes




Brian: Perform my

Limericks somewhere with grace

There’s gold to be had…




If only spirits

Could go on to new bodies

That would be Heaven




I believe my soul

Deserves another body

Here, or there, and NOW




Haiku: Ideas

Which open, develop, then

Finally conclude




Take that which I wrote

Turn it into a drama:

“Contentious Poems”




What more can one say

In one’s feeble attempts to

Edify, inspire?




A magic pencil

Goes where it wants, says what it

Needs, to edify




I take my life now

To give to God whatever

He should choose to do…




Touch the DNA

Of the Henry Francisco

In the stone he wears




I have said my say

Written down advice to take

(Poetically too!)




Tony:

Use my written word

To teach and preach biblical

New inspirations




Mila:

Play my music comps

Pianist extraordinaire

Somewhere to be heard




Brian:

Be the character

Who preaches and gives away

Henry Limericks




The magic pencil

The inspirational ring

The creative mind




Tony, Brian, Mila, James

Teach what I have written to

The world you know there




Yet able to think

I compose and write Haiku

Thus somewhat useful




Helen:

I will always love you




Invent new cadence:

Tony, Brian, Mila, James

Blues for Limericks




Brian: Plenty of

PWT material

To go and perform




Tony

Put it where you want

Take the Port Whitman Times

Teach it, edify…




Folks, loved ones: keep the

Hymnals, tuneful harmonies

Melodies to sing




Pain, distress, no sleep

Pray The Lord one’s soul to keep

Heaven’s Joys to reap




A blank page invites

Stated thought, written down for

Acts to be taken




Thank God for my gift

Maybe you should thank Him too

For yours, using it…




The Port Whitman Times

Tries to state a truth from a

Camden point-of-view




Pain keeps one awake

Alive enough to exist,

Transmit a message




Hoping to find life,

A worn-out body searches

For raison d’être




If you own a home

What NOT to put down the drain

Is a no-brainer




Talking to one’s self

Ruminating on a shelf

Won’t bring any wealth




Haikus that can rhyme

Bordering on the sublime

Stop thought on a dime




Plumbing backing up

Bathtubs and sinks filling up

Drink ye not a cup




Old age is no fun

But if you get to live one

Grin and bear it, son




Now God is my Guide

Steering my direction to

Somewhere I belong




Instagram writing:

Promoting one’s word online

To be read by all




I can walk again

It’s a matter of muscle

Control, will, desire




Urinary pain

Constant and unrelenting

Death preferable…




The word is a sword

Chop down, cut into, stab through

Stimulating thought




Writing, to the end

At least that’s what I can do

Instead of dying




Being a burden:

Never been my cup-of-tea

(Exit stage of life)




But then, off to what

Heaven? Hell? (Speculative)

At least here I write




Writing soothes the pain

Physical, emotional,

Filling up the nonce




Life is a piano

Melodies, harmony, chords

On which to compose




I’ve done many things

Managed to avoid BEing

Enjoyed life’s ice cream




I’ve had a good time

Looking back over my life

Learned, done, paid, written




To Gross Boys:

Your father gave me

A golden pencil with which

I’ve written “The Word”

(Q.V. http://www.portwhitmantimes.com/)




Never rose to be

Chairman, President, but Muse…

Now there’s an office




Old age is slowly

Coming on, going nowhere

Except for writing…




The utmost in stuff

Is what to have, growing old

To allay the pain




Living a fast life

Deserves having a slow death

Thus balance matters




Life is a pencil:

Turn it till the lead runs out

Reload if you can




At what age do we

Realize we get pleasure

Just for its own sake?




To die is my wish

But not my action yet, that

Has to to come later




“The Way That It Is”

(The next book of The Bible)

A New Testament




The Backstrom Sisters:

Mildred, Martha, Mabel. Art:

Finally A Boy!




Imagination

Father’s Ring, Shelly’s Pencil

Voila! Comes Wisdom!




Rub the tiger eye

To turn thought into output

Feel lines of wisdom




To think, imagine

Words to put into Haiku

Is a Divine Gift




If only to die

When one is suffering pain

And can write no more…




I shall be no more

In this very place, but wait…

Heaven (or Hell) looms




Poets cannot help

But compose rhythm or rhyme

For recitation




U.S. Politics

Has now degenerated

Into name-calling




Urinary pain

Distress makes life a mess

Option: suicide?




I shall be no more

In this very place. But wait

Another spot looms…




Poets cannot help

But compose rhythm or rhyme

For recitation




When you think on it

Ev’rybody’s common sense

Remains singular




To think, opine, write

Then be able to transmit

…Civilization!




Dispensing wisdom

From one’s imagination:

—A final resort




Consideration

Of suicide an option

When BEing is pain




Constant pain, distress

Makes one’s life a bloomin’ mess

Better go beyond…




“Rulers”—Obsolete

Online information rules

Access is the key




World: Communicate!

Give everyone everywhere

“Universe” access




Surely the world sees

If we just get together

Universe is One




War is obsolete…

Thought, concept, word transmission

—Now we have the way…




With Sheldon’s Pencil

I transmit inspiration

To internet worlds




I’ve written a book

Opinion, poetry, fact.

It begs to be read




To die in peace is

A fate we all can wish for

Therefore: Live in peace