UPDATE NOVEMBER 10,2006: I have decided, that, for reasons such as letting others know that they are not alone, etc., I am leaving my poems online free for anyone to read. They are not meant for anyone else to publish, unless you are a book publisher who wants to get in touch with me. If you wish to share them with others, please send them a link to this page.

Thank you for your kind words. I will occasionally put new poems and images on my blog. If I ever get to publish anything, I will tell about it in my blog.

May God bring us all together.

Original "intro" follows:

(Although the poems are loosely in chronological order, though not totally, I don't think they must be read in order. I hope not. A good poem should be able to stand alone...not all of these are "good"...you may find references to other poems in some. The more "hopeful" ones are towards the end.)

These are my poems about my struggle of being poorer and a bit different from most folks within my parish in the Church. I've been Catholic for 10 years, but, I had some of the same struggles in other denominations before I was Catholic. I didn't understand then some of the things that I do now.

Many of the poems may sound angry. I went through a long period of time being angry, and I hope that much of the anger is behind me. These days, I find that I'm more tired and sad than angry. All of these feelings stem from the growing realization that I'm only slightly different than others, and that this difference is not acceptable within our society, not even within our Church.

My "difference" is not even a "moral" issue, but one of comfort level for others. I am biologically wired just a bit differently. This means that my body physically picks up on things that many people "filter" out, and my body and brain circuits can go on overload before most persons. It also means that I don't understand social issues very well.

Call it what you like...."autism", "Asperger's", "oversensitive", "gifted", "artistic temperament"....I really don't care what label I get stuck with anymore, I simply want to try to be the best self God made me and work from there.

The anger came in when I realized that I was being treated rotten simply because of this slight difference, and have been all my life, and that persons may or may not be using God and Faith to tell me that I need to be like Everyone Else.

Have you seen how Everyone Else behaves? I have.

I've decided I don't want to be like Everyone Else.

I hesitated to put these poems online, thinking that they are mostly my own personal rants and raves. However, some persons have told me that these poems speak to some of the same types of struggles that they experience. And, it isn't just folks in "low income" brackets. Therefore, my Dedication of this little "book" of poetry is to ANYone who has felt "different", "left out", "invisible", or any of those things that we don't expect to find in the entity we call Church. It is time that we as Church (and I mean ALL denominations.....can't speak for non-Christians, but I CAN speak for "Christian") it is time that we as Church embrace each other in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. The Scriptures say it better than I can:

Ephesians 4:31-32:
"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

Jesus speaking in Mark 9:50 (emphasis mine):
"Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."