Romantic Period 1

A Thought Woke Me Early This Morning            1967

You're the air I breathe, the ground that
Bears me up, everything beautiful I see.
You're the song I hear, the food I eat,
Every thought that comes to me.

You're the fire that warms,
The cooling breeze,
The bed that holds me--
All of these.

You're the dream I dream,
The hope I keep
In those cherished moments
Before I sleep.


Sounds of Wisdom                      circa 1968

Listen to the sound of your star,
Breathing down from afar.
Climb up its beam;
Aspire to that dream
Of your quest.

Harken to the wisdom of your heart;
Believe it not only in part.
For he that so lives
And lovingly gives
Is most blest.


Game of Life                      circa 1969

Oh, Great Jacks Player for the World,
I saw Your great red ball through morning haze
Bounce from the horizon, and wondered
If this could be the game of life:
Are little lives cast down upon this plane
And later picked, 'neath orbits of Your sun,
By some mysterious rule of choice?


Time to Hope                       circa 1969

Autumn's red-orange dress has disappeared
   Around Time's season-circle.
Schizophrenic Winter--graybeard, cherub--
   Cries and laughs around us.
Foggy, melancholy days are come again
   And time for thinking hope thoughts.


Click!                             circa 1969

Since yesterday I have the yen,
When clicks my mind, to click my pen.
But, sad to say, it does not work
The other way--I cannot ken!

Romantic Period 2

I Remember a Mountain              December, 1977

Brown winding road that jarred us
Halfway to the top,
To the stone house where stayed
My Grandmother's love:
Laughter, hugs, and baby loaves of bread
Baked specially for me.

Every window, I recall, could see the lake,
Whose coolness beckoned far below
And lapped the mountain's feet.

No path led down from house to lake.
Erratic gorges through dense woods
Tumbled us, instead of water,
'Round boulders, over fallen logs.
Crashing through brush and winter's store of leaves,
We reached--the sky?--Surprise!
Our lake so well displayed her distant brother.

But my fondest thoughts are of the top,
When I would go alone.
See the groundhog and his mate?
Above the pasture there, the coldest spring
Escapes from deep inside the mountain
And hurries away.
Beside an ancient piece of road,
Two scarabs toil with their ball of manure
As though it were a treasure.
Farther up, an old sheep pen,
Long deserted, whose sagging walls
Still hold the sounds.
There, at the very top, the field
Of gently flowing, blowing grass.

Sit down against this tree and listen--
Meadowlarks, and gentle wind, and peace.


Spectrum of Loving                 1978

I love you
As the quiet softness of candlelight,
As the recurring faith in sunrise,
As the busy up and down of daily experience,
As the eagerness of a child's Christmas morning;
And sometimes--
As an overwhelming, dizzying, symphonic crescendo.


Two Equals Three                   1979

We are actually three people: you, I, and we--each equally
important.  Lose respect for one and the other two suffer; but
respecting all will ensure that each is given time to develop
independently, at his own rate.  The development of any one
should improve the quality of life for all three.


My Love                            1979

You're the warming sun,
The soothing breeze,
The sound of gentle rain;
A perfect rose,
A rainbow,
A midnight hurricane.


Dawn                               11 January 1979

I see a new day dawning;
Old Pete is back again!
Controlling emotions,
Not drowning in oceans
Of self inflicted pain.

Peteisms

These "quaint" observations were attributed to me by my good buddy at MicroStrategy, Randy Hechinger.

Don't throw me in that briar patch!
I'd jump on that like a duck on a junebug!
This is a job for Superman!
Barf!
I hate Bill Gates, everything he stands for, and the horse he rode in on!
Its better than a sharp stick in the eye!
My head is like the permafrost: it takes a while for things to penetrate.
What a mountain of horse hockey!
I've been immortalized!
Seven A.M.? Even the chickens aren't up!
If I see a nit, I have to pick it.
Frog strangler (of rain)
Oh my ears and whiskers! It's lunch time!
It makes my jaws tight!
Well hot cinders and whoopie-doo!
That's been around since Methuselah was a pup!
He's an asshole! Ooooh, the Alka-Seltzer works!
What's so good about sliced bread?
Shazaam!
Get thee behind me, Satan!
If I had dynamite for brains, I couldn't blow my nose!
Ain't that a boot in the boodingy! (spelling unknown)
He's comin' outa shoot number 3, ridin' Cyclone!
Tell them to go butt a stump!
That really jacks my jaws!
Confusing as dropping your gum in the chicken yard
I'll be there, if it hairlips the governor!

A Few of My Thoughts

To become the great nation we once were, we must reward excellence and self-reliance, not subsidize mediocrity and dependence.

As we get older, we spend much time reliving the memories we have made. It therefore behooves us always to live so as to make those memories good.

The great danger in human communication is the false perception that it has been accomplished.

A one-term limit would ensure that no incumbent would ever waste time in office working for his reelection. The corruption-prone career politician would pass away.

Trying to change others' behavior is frustrating. Focus, rather, on improving your own behavior.

Banalities

Cliché
-----------------------
24/7
at this point in time
been there, done that
big time
on the table
don’t go there
due diligence
going forward
hang, hang outhaving said that
any way, shape, or form
level playing field
leverage (verb)
paradigm
proactive
quote unquote
seamless
separation of church and state
step up to the plate
timeline
transition (verb)

My Pet Peeves

politicians who spend most of their time and lots of money getting reelected
politicians who ignore the Constitution
"whether-or-not" introducing a noun clause
"anyone/everyone...their"
"he or she"
"amongst", "at this point in time", "an historic"
limp handshakes, especially while looking away
Sean Hannity shakes hands with a pen in his offered hand. That's offensive!
TV hosts who constantly interrupt their guests
"healthy" when "healthful" is meant
"myself" instead of "me"
"Hindsight is 20-20" (meaning perfect). 20-10 is twice as good as the "nominal" 20-20.
"one-800 number"
"quote-unquote"
"level playing field"
"way, shape, or form"
constantly repeating "you know?"
"Look, ..."
"criteria" and "phenomena" as singular nouns
customers at an all-you-can-eat restaurant leaving half their plate untouched
"podium" instead of "lectern"
rude people who sit with others while talking at length on their cell phone
censoring movies
hosts who invite you and then don't acknowledge your entrance
not using turn signals--especially when you're waiting at a side street on their right, and then they turn right (making you wait unnecessarily)
women who block the aisle with their cart and themselves (yes, it's mostly women)
body piercing and tatoos
"a whole 'nother..."
"how big of a..."
pron. "err" to sound like "air"
pron. "Caribbean" ca-RIB-e-an instead of Ca-rib-BEE-an
pron. en-tre-pren-OO-er instead of en-tre-pren-ERR
pron. FEB-you-wair-ee instead of FEB-ru-air-ee
pron. Co-pen-HAAGH-en instead of Co-pen-HAIG-en  I lived eight years in Denmark and never heard one Dane say Co-pen-HAAGH-en.  Damn Danny Kaye!
Torino (It's "Turin" in English, like Rome and Venice.)

and from http://www.getannoyed.com/
"Ya, know what I'm sayin"... answering with "Again..."
jerks who take up 2 parking spaces
the giving of non-traditional names to babies
women who wear too much perfume
text in all caps
using the phrase "110%"
constantly repeating "like"
blocking traffic by driving slowly in the inside lane

and from http://www.thesocialcentre.com/101-pet-peeves/
going right to the very end of a terminating lane and trying to push in

Irritating and Incorrect English from the Media and Congress:
06/13/07  "for Bill and I"---CNBC, Sue Herrera
06/13/07  gentlelady---U.S. Congress: a nonword, P.C., redundant, silly---improvement seen
08/24/08  "... or whomever is the next president"---Joe Biden, VP cand.

My Take on CO2

The Environmentalist Whackos are smart in one way. They know how to con the media (and hence the public and the politicians) into supporting them. They are calling CO2 "carbon" and "carbon pollution," realizing that this word conjures up the image of smokestacks spewing black smoke. Any high school chemistry student knows that the gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), in no way resembles the solid, carbon (C): CO2 is not smoke!

I have read several articles by esteemed atmospheric scientists that prove that CO2 is not dangerous, that the earth flourished in times when it was warmer. After all, plants require it for growth! I have also read that water vapor is about 50 times as effective as CO2 is as a greenhouse gas. (Maybe spitting outside should be illegal.) The politicians, led by Obama, cite the large numbers of scientists who warn us about the danger of CO2. These "scientists" include mostly those from sectors other than climatology. Would you consult a podiatrist about a brain tumor? Of course there is Al Gore, who only plays scientist. He knows that the oceans are soon going to rise 20 feet!

A few of my sources:
http://www-eaps.mit.edu/faculty/lindzen/Testimony/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lindzen
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2225439/posts
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv15n2/reg15n2g.html
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA334.html
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9136
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6622
http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=12594
http://www.americasfuture.net/1997/nov97/97-1123a.html
http://www.uncommondescent.com/global-warming/father-of-climatology-calls-manmade-global-warming-absurd/