Foundations: The First Poems (1970–1975)

The poems in this section represent the beginning of a poetic record that now spans more than half a century.

The first poem was written on October 11, 1970, the night before the poet reported for military service after being drafted into the United States Army. At that time the poet was twenty-two years old and expected to be sent to Vietnam.

The early poems reflect the intensity of that moment in life when mortality becomes unmistakably real.

Many of the themes that later define the full archive are already present in these first works. Questions of death, the relationship between body and spirit, the continuity of life beyond physical existence, and the observation of everyday moments through a reflective spiritual lens appear repeatedly.

These early poems also reveal a developing habit that will later shape the entire body of work: the impulse to observe life carefully and record insight immediately rather than refine it through extended literary editing.

Although the poet had not yet conceived of creating a long-term poetic archive, the foundational instincts are already visible. The poems move fluidly between ordinary scenes—birds, sidewalks, snow, people passing in daily life—and deeper reflections on existence, time, and the human condition. The voice is independent from literary schools or academic traditions. It speaks directly from personal observation and spiritual questioning.

Looking back from the perspective of more than fifty years and 8000+ poems, these early works can be seen as the seed from which the larger project eventually grew.

What later becomes an extensive chronological archive of consciousness is already present here in embryonic form. The themes that appear throughout the subsequent decades—life, death, the soul, time, unity among human beings, and the search for spiritual understanding—are visible from the beginning.

These poems therefore serve not merely as early experiments but as the foundation of a lifelong poetic journey.

From this starting point the work expands outward through decades of writing, eventually forming an archive of thousands of poems that trace the development of one mind contemplating life, existence, and the possibility of greater peace in the world human society.