A further collection of poems, many from years in the Middle East, but also the California San Francisco and Central Coast areas (Santa Cruz, Carmel, Big Sur, Berkeley, etc.).
This is a further collection of poems, including a number written while an expatriate civilian hired-hand of the Saudi Arabian Government. As may be imagined, 'love' was often a bit more difficult to find in that sere & religiously austere region, and was always confined to interactions between foreign (non-Arab) expats.
'Falling Off the Mountain' also includes some climbing poems & doggerel relating to climbing adventures, since the Sierra Nevada mountain range was practically in the back yard (so to speak), as well as a few aviation-related pieces (nothing, but NOTHING, like nearly having your a*s shot off by an AIM-9 AAM 'accidentally' fired by a RSAF student pilot!) owing much to the nearby RSAF base at Taif, where RSAF's 5th Fighter Squadron operated and the McD/D F-15 'Peace Sun' program yielded much jollity to daily efforts to 'maintain the even strain' by surving the mok-mafi mania of the local 'Sidiyks' another day.
At the time (80s & 90s) I was in lust with BOTH fast jets and fast wimmen of the Asian persuasion, but most of these poems relate to stateside excursions into the Wild Blue Boudoir.
I should in all fairness state that the quality of material found in this second collection profoundly underscores the continuing need to take undergrad literature and writing courses SERIOUSLY, since no testiment exists afiirming the uplifting nature of the book's contents other than the author's desire to lead an interesting life. Yowza! We done did that! (Critics be like 'Dis real crapola!', but what do THEY know, eh?).
Excerpt
ON FINDING HER HAIR IN THE BED 4.5 MONTHS AFTER PARTING
This morning
lying in bed
and reading Chinese history,
I found a single
long, black hair
next to the chapter
marked 'The Cultural
Revolution!'
All the wealth of China!
Professional Reviews Uncertain Paeans...
"I am well acquainted with the mind that produced these paeans to the always uncertain, yet often illuminating experiences of a thoughtfully reflective member of North American sub-rosa culture and society, and I can unequivocally state that few (if any) readers will have the foggiest understanding of or appreciation for what is said in the pages of this book." -Renfrew Hunckelburt Passenfurter, PhD (University of Halawa, HI)
Disturbed Parasympathy!
"A disturbed parasympathetic voyage through the minefields of meso-American culture, undertaken by an individual who is about as qualified to claim poetic talent as a petrified elephant fewmet." -Johannes Steinbok (author of 'Catenary Row')
High Flown, but...
"Clearly, the author has flown higher in his own imagination than his brief career associations with the aerospace and aviation community would intimate; read this book with all the caution normally expected of a dyslexic flight test pilot doing initial stall checks on a Cold War Era Soviet MiG-17PF fighter with its original (unmodified) Tumansky engine!" -Igor V. Updannovitch, Col. (Soviet Air Force, retired)
Questions, unquestioned discoveries, and answers in parable and rhyme…. This collection records a journey starting with a 1960s retrospective and the first man on the moon, moving to a new millennium welcomed in with a terrorist spin, family crises,
