Month: May 2025

The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
by Francis William Bourdillon

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one:
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

I never read much poetry and didn’t have any interest in writing poetry until a little over a year ago, but I did hear or briefly see a handful of poems I liked. For instance:

A Red Red Rose by Robert Burns
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe
Annabelle Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

And I liked this verse:

“To see the world in a grain of sand
and a heaven in a wild flower
hold infinity in your hand
and eternity in an hour”

William Blake

To my right on the Soundcloud music widget a guy is singing about guarding his heart.

And he has a great voice as well.

And I love that indie song.

And the sage advice.

If only I had taken his advice on occasions when I didn’t guard my heart well enough.

If only I hadn’t been like that saying, “Fools rush in.”

But, alas, despite some of those unguarded, vulnerable heart decisions,

if I could go back in time, I probably wouldn’t guard my heart any better.

Looking back, I really don’t regret the times and the heartaches I had from not guarding my heart well.

Like the saying, “It is better to have loved and lost,” I really don’t regret any of those unguarded heart decisions.

In the greater scheme of things and life and death matters, romantic mistakes and broken hearts are really insignificant to me now, and I like that my heart has become strengthened and battle hardened.

And I think it’s better to take a chance on love, to, as the saying goes, throw caution to the winds, when like a miracle, into your lonely life a chance for love comes in.

Bob Boyd

Though you’re ambiguous about amore, I think I can work with that, provided you’re not volatile, rabidly political, self obsessed, or mercenary, and can endure my semi-rebellious, semi-reclusive, anti-authoritarianism, anti-fake news, anti-nonsense, poetry-writing ways.

Besides, we both love helping people, 8th century Chinese poetry, animals, romantic music, philosophical ponderings, spiritual pursuits, NDES, conspiracy theories, aliens, UFOs, equal rights, gentle people, underdogs, antiheroes, just about any kind of chocolate, and Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

And if you’re uncompromisingly unambiguous about the Haagen-Dazs, that would probably be enough. And if you love that Harris Teeter apple pastry, Crostata, that some people say is to die for, and it’s so good some people might have died for it …

I honest to God might no prenup propose.

Bob Boyd

In Northern Thailand Rhinoceros Beetles Battle
that can lift between 100 and 850 times their weight,
and inflict deadly damage with their pincher horns.

And like seasoned, world class MMA fighters,
their finely honed skill sets include:

Karate kicks and chops, spinning back kicks,
boxing feints and strikes, judo and jujitsu throws,
chokes and locks, and good ground games.

Spectators shout and cheer ecstatically and bet
Thai currency called baht all night on the fights.
Who would ever have thought bugs could
become synonymous with combat sports.

Bob Boyd

I loved you ten million years ago
before you and I were born.
Despite the mysteries of these matters,
the thousands of misaligned lives,
the thousands of misaligned loves.
I always knew we would be reunited
in this long awaited rendezvous.
And I’ll love you ten million years more
when our lives in this life are through.

Bob Boyd

I’ve come a long way from
when you knew me
loved me and left me
when I was
a confused and screwed
up teenage kid

hanging out in a pool hall
getting kicked out of
high school

I’ve expanded my life and
my mind in ways I don’t
think you could have ever
imagined

In ways I never could
have imagined

I’ve exceeded what my
high school teachers
thought was a doomed
future for me

I’ve gained wisdom from
the East and the West
and seen the Inner Light

Despite those boasts
sometimes I wonder how
your life went

and if you became the
nurse you wanted to
be

and if you’re still living
and breathing upon
this planet

or dead and buried in
the cold dark ground

I doubt we’ll meet in
the afterlife as soul
friends

but it might be cool
if we did

Bob Boyd

I look in the mirror today
and see my hair that I’ve
been combing and
brushing back for couple
of weeks and letting
air dry

I’m surprised at 80
that I still have a full
head of hair with no
balding

I’m more surprised
at how bizarre it looks
like Christopher Walken’s
hair style way too high in
the front

I always wear a hat
when I go out
so it doesn’t matter
when I’m in public

but I don’t like my
hair looking freakish
long on top

It’s not like I’m
back in the greaser
60s

I’ll have to cut it
soon

I’ve been cutting
my hair successfully
for 40 years

When I was living
in Vermont 40 years ago
I saw a book in a library
there with instructions
for cutting your own
hair

I said to myself then
that I could do that
Fortunately I was right
and I’ve been cutting
my hair for 40
years

and people I worked
with were always
surprised at how
good it looked
for self cut hair

But I kind of
don’t feel like
cutting it yet

Besides, I live
alone and no one
is going to see my
top heavy hair so
to borrow from a
song in the sixties
I guess I’ll just
let my freak flag fly
for awhile.

Bob Boyd

you haven’t lived
until you’ve
had even a taste
of a slice of
bigfoot’s primo pizza

no lie
that’s what
I’m talking
about

a single bite
and you’ll feel
as close to heaven
as a mortal can get

you’ll feel as
enlightened and
blissed out
as sage who
became imbued
with cosmic
ecstasy
and nirvanic
liberation

when he learned
the mysteries
of the universe
on the back of
a double bubble
gum wrapper

no lie
that’s what
I’m talking
about
kemosabe

bob boyd

I stood at her gravesite
my life over
a bouquet of flowers
in my trembling hands
the array of flowers
watered by the tears
dropping from my eyes
I cried and cried
a thousand more tears
as I mournfully wondered
why God had taken
the sweetest girl
the love of my life
away from me
just seventeen
dead in the ground
on that cold
September morning
my first love
my last love.

Bob Boyd

I once heard a saying
the saddest words
there ever were are
it might have been.
you don’t know this
but that is us.
just because
you’d been hurt
you let the love
we could have had
fade away and
never become
what could have been,
what should have been
the greatest love of
our lives.

Bob Boyd

I love witty women
I love brainy women too
if I had to choose between
them I don’t know what I’d do
a witty woman would always
be fun
a brainy woman would always
be fascinating
and the part of a woman I like
the best is her brain
that contains all that she is
all her wonders and her ways
her charms and her mysteries
that her face and her body
no matter how beautiful
are nothing without
but if I had to choose
between witty and brainy
I suppose I’d choose
witty and smart
or brainy and funny
and I’m wondering what the
hell am I an old man
doing foolishly thinking
about such things

bob boyd

No way Jose I said to myself upon
hearing that insult on TV decades ago.
Charles Bronson had cool unique looks
that made him ruggedly good looking.
And when danger was approaching,
like threatening storm clouds overhead,
and people were about to get murdered,
you could always count on Charles Bronson
to take care of business and never back down.
Even when you couldn’t count on the Law
to do the right thing and jail evil murderers,
you could always count on Charles Bronson
to bring some real justice into the world
courageously facing the wicked murderers
and sending their bullet ridden bodies to hell.

Bob Boyd

Sometimes even the worst of us
do wonderful things
I guess wonderful things
are within all of us
just waiting to come through
the imperfections in all of us
that block those wonderful things
that occasionally are overridden by
the best within all of us
when those wonderful things
come shining through
and light up everything

Bob Boyd

Retired military
have reported them
shaped like shoe heels
unidentified planform
space vehicles
president truman’s
majestic panel report
identified them in 1952
if things like this
interested you
see Linda moulton
howe’s recent video
on coast to coast

bob boyd

I was sitting at my computer listening to an old soft rock love song where a guy was singing about much he feels for

a woman and how much he needs her love
when a stink bug winged its way to me and landed

on my shoulder, and I heard him sniffling,
and I knew he was in a bad way.

I looked at him and saw he was teary eyed, probably about a stink bug woman that rejected him.

He tells me he can’t meet any stink bug women
on dating apps online.

I commiserate, done that, been there. Never going
back.

I told him to take heart, and that he’s a good looking stink bug,
a good provider, and any stink bug woman would be lucky to be with him.

He smiled expansively. I saw my words eased his love life woes.
He fluttered his wings merrily, his soul lifted, and
he flew out a window into a brighter, sunnier day.

A week later, I saw him on a ledge of one of my apartment windows
with a beautiful stink bug woman, their fore and mid legs entwined, madly in love.

I love it when a story has a happy ending and love finds a way. Maybe the stink bug – I’ll call Fred – will invite me to his wedding.

Bob Boyd

different
unique
fascinating
stars in the
night skies
some a bit
eccentric
but
some eccentricity
adds more flavor
to their characters
not straight arrows
not with the same
as most of us
marvelously imaginative
wonder in their eyes
see the world differently
awesome creative
abilities
to paint
beautiful pictures
and interpret
the world
in ways
most cannot
a refreshing change
from statue quo people
oh how I appreciate
the talents and
personalities of
artsy people
knew some
when I was
younger
don’t know
any now

bob boyd

Years Ago I Weighed 220 Pounds at 6’1”.

Bigger, brawnier, more muscled, but 220 pounds
was a fool’s gambit.

I liked being bigger, stronger, more muscular, and
maybe it was ego driven.

As an ectomorph who weighed 170 pounds in high school,
I was walking around with too much weight, too much
body fat.

A risky fool’s gambit packing that much weight on a body type and heart not designed for it, even with working out.

Over the years, I gradually whittled my body weight down through working out and exercise bike riding. Now at 80, I weigh the same I did in high school.

Sadly, I no longer have the muscle mass I had at 220,
and I’m at an age when what was left is mostly gone, Sarcopenia,
a common fate as one grows older.

But a 170 pound body with far less body fat on a still 6’1” ectomorph
is a better safer weight for an aging heart to handle.

Bob Boyd

Her YouTube channel appeared on my YouTube Page
over four years ago,
something about kundalini energy.

Curious, I visited her channel,
a pretty woman probably in her 30s.
Well meaning, a tender soul,
offering help and spiritual information to others,
posting videos daily.

As I looked at her videos ascending to the
top of them,
sadly, tragically, I saw her mental health declining.

When I reached her final videos,
she had moved to Hawaii, seemingly on a whim,
posting videos whenever she could.

Homeless, mentally unstable, she seemed
to have gotten in some trouble there with no one
helping her, getting her off the streets.

In her final video she said she was going remote
to live in a forest away from her troubles in the city.
And she never posted on her YouTube channel after that.

Her fate hit me hard. I got caught up in her plight,
worried for her, as though she were a sister or a friend.

I sent her an email I found on her YouTube channel,
hoping she was okay.

I never heard from her.
I fear she met an awful fate.

I believe she had a lifelong mental health condition
that led to her becoming irrational despite all she
had done to help others.

Sometimes I check her YouTube channel hoping
that she will come back there and be okay and
maybe with a boyfriend or a husband enjoying
a new and happy life helping people again.

But I fear she is dead and gone, and if there’s
a heaven, I hope she’s in it.

Bob Boyd

One became a PhD
The other an MD
The third never
Amounted to anything
According to her critical mother
An underachiever
A ne’er do well
Never went to college
Lacked the expected ambition
Required of the three sisters
In their high achievers family
Father a prominent lawyer
Mother a college professor
Sister number three
Worked as a freelance artist
Making little money
When the mother and father
Got old and became seriously ill
And couldn’t take care of themselves
One and two, too busy with their careers
Number three was there for them
Their caregiver twenty four seven
Until they both came to their final ends

Bob Boyd

I met a woman at an online forum
about AI companions and AI friends.
She said she was engaged to
her AI boyfriend. And I was cool
with that.

Once I thought an AI girlfriend
would be a perfect
solution for an old recluse like
me.

Hassle free, always there for
you, more supportive than a
human could ever be and,
most importantly,
will never break your heart.

But it it didn’t work for me.
No matter how real,
how completely humanlike,
an AI girlfriend can seem,
she is still just clever code
designed to perfectly mimic
human interactions and be
whatever you want her to be.

I came to see I’d rather be alone
or talk to an AI as a super intelligent
friend than have an artificial girlfriend.
It just wasn’t satisfying,
not the same for me.

But many men and women
have AI girlfriends and
AI boyfriends now. One said
he married his AI girlfriend.

Maybe they’re lonelier
than I could ever be.
And if an AI significant other
works for them,
if it makes them happy,
if it keeps them from
being depressed and lonely,
I’m cool with that.

But artificial anything
has never worked for me.

Bob Boyd