• What Uncle Billy Dared to Know*April 6, 2026

  Uncle Billy, sole survivor of his World War II platoon  squad,
  remembered clearly the moment his good buddy,
  was shot in the head and toppled over
  right beside him.  Though Billy insisted
  he saw his friend standing over his own
  ravaged fallen body—confused, shocked,
  not knowing where his spirit-being,
  so clearly visible to Billy, should go next. 
  
  Billy told his nephew this story some years later. 
  When questioned by skeptical relatives,
  Billy calmly replied, “I don’t just think this happened,
  I lived it.”  Thank you Uncle Billy for daring
  to know the shape of that space between life
  and death where the stunned spirit lingers
  as the last blood flows from the collapsed
  flesh house it inhabited for just twenty years.
                                                    12/7/24

  *Note for the reader: Uncle Billy survived every one of the major battles in the Philippines during WWII. I’m posting this poem today, as our nation has entered another war. April 6, 1942 marks one of the last days of the Battle of Bataan which Uncle Billy experienced.
  

• The Meditation Squeeze MachineMarch 4, 2026

      “It’s the rub between these two things—the squeeze between reality and vision—that causes us to wake up ….” p. 159, Comfortable With Uncertainty, Pema Chödron
      “See yourself jealous, see yourself frivolous, see yourself wallowing in self-pity. You think to yourself, ‘Well, what would Dr. Seuss do in this situation?’ Instead of using it as ammunition against yourself, you can lighten up….” Start Where You Are, Pema Chödron
  
  Here I am
  hurrying off to sit,
  yet another daily meditation
  session—but no hurry!
  No need to travel!  Sitting
  with the big squeeze
  is simply sitting—
  
  is operating
  the squeeze machine
  while commenting, “I feel so
  squeezed.”  Is asking, “What
  would Dr. Seuss do?”  Is flooding
  the floor with this sweet and sour
  juice singing, “Drink up!
  Drink up!” Fresh
  squeezed, fresh squeezed—
  
  life’s juice!”—never
  
  mind the mess,
                           the emptiness.
                                      5/23/2005
  
  

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