Writings And Other Manifestations of My Mind

Sandra was matriculating at Howard University in Washington, D. C. I partnered her in the first two of three rounds of competitive dancing.

And having come to terms
with your heart's intelligence,
your body obeyed
the authority of its agency.
The law of supply provided confirmation,
that of forgiveness infused you 
with confidence,
and your soul got happy.
Copyright © 2017 Trifoglio

When you sing soul anthems, pop songs, jazz standards
Dorsey and gospel-infused Puccini to an arethafied completion
Your presentation of each offering rates among the best 
Of the best sounds I've ever heard uttered
By a journey agent of the vocalizing kind
Your joyful noise-making touches me up 
The spiritual nurturance of your sacred/secular tonality 
Rectifies the imbalance between 
My ego and my true self 
I say "YES!" knowing that each self-dividing 
Go up, go down, go here, go there, go yes, go no
Was an overture to the unfolding of my destiny
And having these two aspects in balance again
I acknowledge with everything I feel in me
That moving and moving with the spirit
Is the surest way to navigate life's episodes
Of learning, unlearning, relearning, and forgiving  
While the blood still runs warm in my veins    
I won't forget your sweeter than sweet notes
Which are heard not with the ears, but the heart 
Copyright © 2024 Trifoglio

Ciao Lawrence!
You understood the meaning of Inter Alia.
Thanks for the feedback one more time, and
      thanks for the example of your courage:—
      still open to the sinister currents of these days,
      seeking a farther star, embracing the unknown,
      becoming more you as you approach
      the twilight passage back to from where we all came
      when we first got here.
Your Benin visage/presence, 
      like that of il padrone or a trickster,
      resides on the altar of my heart.
Someday we'll meet again and resume poetic exchanges
      in the key of brotherhood,
      offering cryptic attitude galore evermore.
Ciao fratellino!
Copyright © 2024 Trifoglio

A review of Bob McNeil’s big little book

Bob, thank you for this collection of essays, illustrations, poems, and short stories. They are a timely antidote to the widespread lack of compassion, here, there, and everywhere, in these United States of America. I am afraid the nightmare to which Stevie Wonder alluded in his 1970 recording titled “Never Had a Dream Come True”, has become real life. Since the COVID-19 epidemic and the January 6, 2021 uprising in the District of Columbia, the American democratic promise has gone undeniably and indisputably belly-up.

Compassion is in need of compassion today. The exercise of laws in the Nation that once safeguarded our human rights—and protected us from the malfeasance of overzealous governmental officials—are routinely flouted in the twenty-fifth year of the Twenty-first Century. The calamities that every citizen faces here and now, threaten to turn the world upside down in a way that defies comprehension. The haves (rich, powerful individuals) are valorized, and their wealth is highly praised. The have nots (poor and less fortunate individuals) are criminalized. They are treated like alien undesirables, although their lot in this collapsing American Empire is not entirely their own fault. They are not fully responsible for their misfortune, and the rest of we the people are likewise not responsible for what is happening to us, as a result of the Nation’s decline. Today, wealth is a social and political requirement; might is right generally speaking; and that much sought after mean green still is God Almighty and the national religion. Love, brotherhood, sisterhood, and the fragility and preciousness of human life seemingly are irrelevant ideals in the New Millennium.

The beauty and power of your little big book inspires hope in me. It is good medicine; one that alleviates the particular spiritual darkness and psychological pain produced by these hardhearted and uncertain present times. Each essay, illustration, poem, and short story brings to mind the vision that defined the optimistic, breakaway years of our youth: those gone days when advocating for peace, love, and harmony across the Nation was the zeitgeist, during the 60s and 70s. Each skillfully written offering is a testament of love; a paean to the ideals of brotherhood, sisterhood, the emotionally responsive heart, and to breathing in and breathing out. Compositions On Compassion And Other Emotions is a welcomed verbal and graphic expression that indicates you are one of the diehard standard bearers of the love/compassion persuasion.

Copyright © 2025 Trifoglio

His name is my name
an Old English word 
for
the Shamrock symbol of Ireland
which crimson variety grows in southeastern Georgia
and everywhere else
on Planet Mother Earth

While traveling
in places and spaces sign-posted by my father
his father and his father
before him
and duly marked 
by every male person in history
I walked receptively into
those hereditary regions of thought and gendered behaviors 
with ears perked and eyes wide open
Copyright © 2024 Trifoglio

Everything must change: 
the young become the old, mysteries do unfold
No system, no ideology
no nation
no human being, and no thing lasts forever 
Change and change and change is the essence of life
Without change there is no life.
How do I know?
 I look inside myself and see
Copyright © 2024 Trifoglio

Il mio fratellino, dove stai?
Non ti posso vedere...eccoti!                                                   
Ti mi ha dato tanta gioia
Voglio gridare il tuo nome
Si tradire il mio segreto
Copyright © 2024 Trifoglio

Yes, Trayvon Martin was convicted for his own murder
No, he did not have a jury of his peers
Yes, there is a pattern of murdering 
       African descendant males since the day before yesterday
No, racism in the United States is not a thing of the past
Yes, he was convicted by the criminal injustice system
Yes, the lives of all hyphenated folks, womenfolk, differently abled folks,
      differently sexualized folks, and the poor folks 
      of every ethnicity in the salad bowl don't matter  
Yes, Malcolm X and the rainbow tribe of elders
      were right—
Thank goodness for Shahid King Bolsen!
Copyright © 2024 Trifoglio