Broken Bits of the Rainbow

About the Book

A stunning rainbow of beauty from Birth to Death. Over a thousand poems attempt to honor my pledge: to sing to return to the earth the earth sent songs from this frail string of a love tuned singer The poems follow life from birth to death. The contents: life youth love family beauty nature destruction creation off balance wisdom sex humans quirks society aging death Samples of the poetry are available at another click.

About the Author

I am a boy dreamer masquerading as a logical adult—I wrote a college text, Thinking, as my adult costume. I received two masters, and then got a PhD in English Renaissance Literature from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. I have taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago; McMurry University in Abilene, Texas; Villa Maria College (now Gannon University) in Erie, Pennsylvania; and recently I retired pro temp (I love it so much, it still calls me) from Gateway Technical College in the Wisconsin Technical College System. Next to teaching and being surrounded by Nature, I love writing. Hopefully my books will show that: My first adventure was myth and magic with The Karjill ( a quest to restore order from chaos) and The Wizard (a coming of age of a boy growing to face dark forces). Then Sow the Storm (an adventure/danger/challenge of the young and bright against the abusing global power structure). I rashly wrote a poetical overview of human folly, God: an autobiography. I hopefully showed the cleansing power of nature in The Other Edge of Beauty. Then the 2000 election fired up my patriotic spirit and I wrote: America, the takeback, followed by a strong wake-up call to action in: Bridge Out: full speed ahead. That book ended with founding an organization: TheEarthAct.org which has a simple, profound, doable plan to deal with the environmental and economic crises. Sounds delusory, but it is logical (refer to Thinking, above, and check it out yourself). A book of 136 children’s stories followed with a name just as big—Stories of Sunshine and Funtime, Wonder and Thunder, Mystery and Magic for the Young to Grow On—whew. And now, the lifetime accumulation of my poetry, 1300 poems written when life kissed me on the cheek or kicked me in the groin—both needed, welcomed, and thanked for the poems they yielded in Broken Bits of the Rainbow. As my poem, dedicating the work to life, says: to life: how soft you sift the thick wet snow each twiglet white in the windless stillness of the night I stand frozen in your beauty brain cells seize ink blood thickens weak words flail to tongue your works mistress and mother yet i your creature pledge to sing to return to the earth the earth sent songs from this frail string of a love tuned singer I am currently working on a book, tentatively titled: T-Boned. It begins, “My mother was T-boned in an intersection. She died… It starts a path opening a novel which probes fate, destiny, providence, random chance, bad luck, karma—life. I have been gifted beyond measure by life, and hopefully when my life ends I will be watching the sunset over mountains or the ocean and feeling thanks and writing…