Please let me be quite honest with you; As I know no other way. I kinda like writing fictional lies; And do not care what you say.

My daughter said if I ever dated again That no more words would we speak. I said, ” So my dating life is over?… If I’m honest, my game was really weak.”

There’s a relief now I know it’s over. I can put all that drama behind. I didn’t like the fiction. And the lack of peace of mind.

Dennis Mantin

A quiet place to sit and read… With no voices in your head. Except for what you’re reading, Not last night, what was said.

You need to find that quiet That space just meant for you. Or you will go batshit crazy, Ancient wisdom, nothing new.

Dennis Mantin

I take my daughter to the park to teach her how to throw and catch a baseball.

Old men are rolling dice. They laugh and smile and roll and yell.

Some are louder than others, usually the ones on the roll. The others who sit quietly watching, await their turn.

Later waiting for the bus a young man chain smoking, sitting on the sidewalk stops sucking on poison long enough to say, ” You’re confused. ”

It makes no sense until you realize he’s talking to himself or someone only he can see.

Sometimes I feel disconnected to humanity but it usually doesn’t last long.

Dennis Mantin

Our perspectives are understandable, and flawed. From our first breath we feel the fear and shortly thereafter the desire. It is the universal truth of this human experience.

There’s only one way beyond fear and desire and that is through death.

The great deliverance beyond fear and desire…

I have learned a thing or 3. Some of you and much of me.

Where we go, I don’t know. But it’s here, we work through fear.

Dennis Mantin

Sitting at the edge of time.

We ask for truths we never find.

Transcendent worlds so sublime.

Shamans dance to lead the blind.

It’s here, it’s here, you hear them say.

And like a kiss that fades away.

Gripping fear you lose the rhyme.

Sitting at the edge of time.Dennis Mantin

They line the streets outside forming For soup or whatever it is they serve When doors open.

Most bum cigarettes, a few drink rubbing alcohol and others find dehydration through crystal meth. Some have lost their minds.

Some faces stare down at the sidewalk Searching for answers that don’t exist. Some faces talk endlessly with flailing arms extended and pointing out injustices.

A few have that 1000 yards hangover stare that reminds everyone that the pain still remains and isn’t going anywhere, except…

A face I haven’t seen in 15 years. I search for his name. He’s talking. His eyes are clear, his handshake strong. Paul? “I just stopped trying to quit.” He said . “I stopped fighting. Got to go to work now.”

He says, “Goodbye and God bless.”

Dennis Mantin

Fear and desire.

The origin two.

Pure sure fire.

More me than you.

I’ve worked on fear

It’s red white blue

But I fear my Love

The desire grew.

Dennis Mantin

The best things can’t be told because they transcend thought.

The second best are misunderstood.

The third best are what we talk about.

I make myself vulnerable by asking questions, exposing my fears which show my desire.

This is the place where cowards fear to go.

There, I painted myself into a corner.

Dennis Mantin

The story goes that a tornado ripped apart a town leaving the townsfolk in total ruin.

A young boy looked at his mother upon returning to the shambles that once was their home and commented:

“Look Ma, ain’t it great! The winds stopped blowing. ”

Thus he was labeled ‘ The Fool. ‘

In his defense I would like to point out that his joy at being alive is perhaps buoyed by the sheer wisdom that if you are alive and well, he can always start again.

Dennis Mantin

To be poor on a farm is nothing like urban poverty; for falling through the cracks here can have dire consequences.

Meanwhile back on the farm, that chicken could catch hell, however a vegetarian diet can be maintained or at the very least you’ll eat.

After a while they have no one to talk to who doesn’t yell at them and they go off muttering to themselves, dreading their very existence and fearing the end.

Not unlike some folks in failed marriages!

Dennis Mantin