Essays
"Becoming a Poet" (from THE MINDFUL WORD)
THE MINDFUL WORD subtitled this full-length essay "The Magic
of Word Art". It traces the wonder of being startled into verse during college, and the gradual realization that our language contains "another language" for the expression of the heart.
The piece describes several intimate revalations or possibly initiations. It also describes seminal experiences with Allen Ginsberg and Robert Bly, perhaps the two most influential American poets
for my generation.
Read "BECOMING A POET: THE MAGIC OF WORD
ART"
"Christ for Beginners: Becoming Aware of the God in All Things" (from THE MINDFUL WORD)
How great has been the distance between my reformed
Jewish upbringing, in which word "Christ" was absolutely verboten, and my now-longtime relationship with Meher Baba, whom recognize as the Christ of our own age! On the way, how many spiritual
adventures!
Read "CHRIST FOR BEGINNERS: BECOMING
AWARE OF THE GOD IN ALL THINGS"
"Happy Re-birth Day to Me!" (from THE MINDFUL WORD)
Written on the 37th anniversary of one of two great transformative experiences in my life, my meeting with Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) in Oklahoma City, OK at the nadir of my life, which was frozen due to a childhood trauma I believed had "ruined me". I left the room two hours later--shining!
Read "HAPPY RE-BIRTH DAY TO ME: a Personal Essay"
"A Poet At His Own Memorial: Validation through hearing your work without knowing it’s yours" (from THE MINDFUL WORD)
It was terribly suspenseful, wondering who had written this terrific poem I was listening to...when I wasn't feeling envious!
Read "A Poet At His Own Memorial: Validation through hearing your work without knowing it's yours"
"The Island: Giving the gift of Music" (from THE MINDFUL WORD)
"Music is the greatest gift you can give someone," said my mother-in-law, Ruth.
Read "The Island" Giving the gift of Music"
"Lost in Dance" (from THE MINDFUL WORD)
"My City of Lions" (published online)
a memoir of growing up in University City, Missouri, just outside St. Louis.
Read "My City of Lions"
"My Personal Treasury of Cat Stevens Stories" (from the Seattle Star)
written in a hearfelt burst of enthusiasm, upon his induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame in May, 2014. Sublime memories.
Read "My Personal Treasury of Cat Stevens Stories"
"Ladder of Renewal": a Saga in Paint and Words" (from The Mindful Word)
What do you do when you are admitted to Paradise, and after a few years you find that you don't belong? A piece, with accompanying paintings done at the time, about "leaving God to find God"--in 1997, I left Myrtle Beach, SC, where I'd lived for 6 1/2 years (my longest sojourn there, of several residencies) in the community surrounding the Meher Spiritual Center, a 500-acre wildlife retreat on the Atlantic with cabins, visited personally by Meher Baba three times. I had longed all my adult life to be a permanent resident there. This piece details the slow way I was (or so I feel) Led onward.
read "Ladder of Renewal"
"Coming to Baba" (from The Mindful Word)
subtitled "My 43-year Romance with Meher Baba"
Read "Coming to Baba"
"On Running Out of Authors: The 'literary canon' of a baby-boomer’s youth explodes like a seed-pod, into a cornucopia" (from The Mindful Word)
"Me and Huck Finn: Long-ago Riverboat Days" (from The Mindful Word)
My 2 months on Mississippi towboats. The 2nd, earn money for my first pilgrimage to Meher Baba's Samadhi (Tomb-Shrine) in India
Read "Me and Huck Finn"
