Robert J. Tiess

@robertjtiess.bsky.social

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Poet Author Writer 1980s-now 31+ Years in Libraries Conscious Writers Collective Member Advocate of Poets & Poetry My poetry collections: + Gracious Nature + May We Learn from the Earth + The Humbling and Other Poems Website: robertjtiess.wordpress.com

THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Maternal Earth .THE POEM: First mother of our fledgling world, you nurture forests, mountains, seas. Come speak your earthly verse to us so we may learn your poetry. Teach us your ways. Sustain us, please. Defend us from our vanities. Remind us to revere all life, seek peace, and leave our gluttony. Admonish us and set us straight. Inspire us to cultivate. END OF POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess © 2022
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Dearly Despotic, THE POEM: There is one province in this world I think you'd do so well to crush tonight, a nameless place within your range, if you should ever choose to govern it, or seize it even in the dark, as others sleep, dream laughter, liberties, before dawn comes recalling them to wake up to delusion's cruelest rule. I mean a state you'd conquer quick, if you would stoop to master it, at last, command it with an ironed mind, new constitution, redder better truths, with domination we may praise, if you could best the worst of it, and fast, the inward country of your self, where no flag slumps, no bygone anthem blares, republic you have yet to lead from spineless fights to kinder rightful might ascending to the yields of peace: a nation greatened by just sovereignty. END OF POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Orbital Mechanics THE POEM: Around one light of life and time our tilting planets orbit, spin. We've science, arts, philosophies, traditions, cultures, histories, and we’ve got rockets, travel plans, astronomers, space telescopes, more worlds of cause to learn and love than dub each other aliens. .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
. THE TITLE OF THE POEM: On Difficult Discoverings THE POEM: Who wants them blatant? Handed out like candy? Who’d have them centered in the undemanding openness of pedestrian thoroughfares... exaggerated, made apparent, left heads-up, shimmering like golden nuggets scattered casually for easy-peasy pocketing? Why wouldn't you sooner risk exhaustion or muddied fingernails? Or the blistering friction delivering future callouses? And why wouldn't you welcome full complements of scrapes and nicks authentic searches deserve and exert before the comfort of a core discovery? Why shy from chiseling after prospecting, the splintering of thicknesses? It’s only then the softer brushing can come back around to gently sweep the fossil dust away. Let’s love the struggle of uncovering new things, abiding by painstaking breakthroughs along with the promises of a delightful find. Persist at even more peculiar truths: the heavy special revelations you and only you arrive at after trying everything. . THE END OF THE POEM . Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: A Sorting Out THE POEM: It's neither famished fox nor staggered snowshoe hare waiting (shaking (gasping (gaping with (breakneck (heartbeats))))) for the tremendous split-second to burst from the fir's asylum of snow-laden branches toward breathless survival; whatever hesitates, it's more life-and-death than any metaphor conceives to wheeze... .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: February 18, 2026 (For Amy, with All Due Respect to Dylan Thomas) THE POEM: You sparred through countless bouts of "final nights" and proved (despite your 90 years) you could contend with sunsets for more restful days. You fought brigades of pain, your failing heart, embattled nerves (and knees and veins) to stand your ground, assert your terms, your spirit's rights. You met mortality head on, not as a cornered boxer knocking shadows back with flailing jabs, but as a champion, aware we're dared to best our lesser selves, slug fears, pound doubts with hard unflinching truths, then leave these rings for sweeter things, like peace, small victories of dozing off at will and knowing no sleep ever spells The End. Dawn offers more than time or mist in flight, or one more noon to mend a disconnect; it may bring bells to spare us needless rounds of getting sucker-punched by greed or pride or walloped by deceit or self-defeat. I'd hope the wise among us might concede it never meant A Title Match, this life, and prizes higher than a canvassed sky provoke our souls to love—not fight—that height where grief meets healing in the weightless light. .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: To My Extraordinary Valentine THE POEM: If I'm a lung, you're oxygen sustaining me with every breath. While I'm your prism, you're my light, revealing more than eyes will know. But when I'm milkweed, butterfly, togetherness brings flourishing. And if I'm ocean, you're my Moon inspiring tides to rise with life. Where I'm a comet, your my Sun: our dancing dazzles galaxies. I could go on: you're rocket fuel that frees us from Earth's gravity. Or: you're the magnet to my compass, leading me from aimless ways. Or: you're the proof time's been a lie, because this kiss is timelessness. Or: if I'm words, you're poetry, creating beauty through new truths. Or: you're my faith, if I'm a church, such that I trust love is divine. .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Receiver THE POEM: Elusive, it's true, but I do know it's to be found, that heartening song you really ought to hear instead of all these requiems on repeat. Somehow I've found it at the worst of times, whispering, whimpering, blistered with static, trampled by zombies with mouthfuls of shards, dazed by stations mixing disfigured strains with injured lyrics bleeding over frequencies. I swear it's out there somewhere for you. There've been days I've dialed it in by chance or by angling an antenna again and again or setting the radio closer to a window or situating it upstairs, in another room. Don't worry, I won't karaoke it! Besides, I'll be remembering it very differently: acoustical calm softly rocked by guitars with this glistening chorus of angels fading to black. It's sincere, difficult at bits, but upbeat to me. How can you recognize it through the noise or tease it out of the shifty dissonance? It could be disco, salsa, reggae, trance, baroque, the blues, free jazz, a rhapsody. How should I say which music sings to you? What stirs your legs with irrepressible dance? What hoists your spirits over the low clouds or rallies your heart against a total standstill? Whatever it is, I hope you'll soon tune into it. .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Eurydice's Epilogue at the Last Look THE POEM: Uncertainty? Averting eyes? Tell Love submit?! Turn back?! Away?! When treasuring owes everything?! Resistance? Dance at this Abyss!! We'll risk infinities for this glimpse!!! How could we and how couldn't we?! Obey Death?! NEVER!!!! EYES TO MINE!!!!! ADORE ME!!!!!! IRREVOCABLY!!!!!!! . THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: 33 Years, 2 Aprils, 2 Graves, 1 Love THE POEM: In April 87, on the third, they lowered my father's casket in the leafy field that still sways behind Saint Joseph's church.   In 33 years, in April, on the eighth, my mother's coffin sunk into the emerald graveyard turf that wakes behind Saint Joseph's church.   Now, long before my father passed away, my mother said she had it arranged to rest beside him, set right there, I never questioned that.   Yet, when her final week arrived, I called an office at the church, and heard somebody say there was no plot. I had to buy her plot.   I used to wonder, whether it was left or else (however it was she could have turned) how lost she might have been to find her husband nowhere near.   She wasn't buried all that far from him, about a hundred feet away, which is... how much, in spirit terms? Why should they sleep?   Why would a last breath ever spell an end to ageless moments, sacred vows? Devotion shrugs at death's mirage. I know my parents dance.   They’re teaching me no tomb holds back a soul from unity, and love forsakes mistakes, and dates and place to wake in nameless light —a grace of godliness. .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM:" What Comes to Light Tonight? THE POEM: Below the shown composure of the sea, slow undercurrents goading low tumult, commotion flowing, foaming opening... but why? A tidal wave? A seismic shift? Or Davy Jones? Atlantis coming back? Leviathan? A huge truth surfacing? .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Devotional Nostalgia THE POEM: I miss when prayers were giving thanks, cute Christmas wishes, asks for insights, courage, strength, not pleas for peace, civility, autonomy, more tolerance, truth, decency, morality, or interventions from above. .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: To a Bay Window THE POEM: Your openness, your patient charity... all gifts I welcome, friend, now that I'm at your sill again with questioned memories and sometimes dreams like dragonflies that eye these country scenes you frame like painted art. I haven't thanked you well enough for this, especially around mid-March, when you'll remind me winter's letting go of loss. Then June's new music full of wind and wings! And fall's reviving flights of phoenix hues! Through you, I see we ought to survey earth, our souls, search outside outworn vantage points to learn what different heights and angles teach. Perspective is the best gift you can give, now I've seen many other ways to live! . THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Psychomachian THE POEM: Believe there will be finer times when chilling possibilities are mostly fictions scarcely read in warmer small-town living rooms, where TVs never bleed out news and dreaming heals easily along with more belonging songs. Believe there climbs a higher hill untouched by such destructive "love" that worshiped as the heretic no longer living by the word because the lie became its truth, chaos its rule, fool's gold its wealth, inequity its principle. That's how soul wars snuck up on us: so stealthily as decadence disguised as riling righteousness —so "good" so many swore by it, its dogma marking darkness light, disharmony harmonious, all crucifixions beautiful. With flashbang headlines quaking faith and splintered pillars faltering, foundations cracked, no longer kept facades and constitutions firm on top of every dithering and trembling and dissembling and aftershocks of aftershocks. With winning losing, virtue vice, confusion oozed unfought through thought. Deceit invaded reigns and gains to pledge allegiance to the sin that twists illicit into fit, pollution into oxygen, demonic into godliness. Then "strength" made weakness, honor shame, prosperity our poverty —yet questions meant deliverance once we could leave our lesser selves, return our search toward something more than worldliness, that great disgrace. That's how we started saving souls. .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: A Knight's Progress THE POEM: How could I visit every square around this boundless checkered board that's running out of sight and time? I've learned the rules, moved nobly on, respecting measures, turn by turn, yet I see pieces leaping wrong. No rook should glide diagonal. Now random knights ride anywhere? Since when are kings bulldozing pawns? Break free from dead chess metaphors which trick us into "wins" or "loss" and treat like life a battle zone. Among the trillion intervals between our charge and charred extremes old ranks and files vanish fast. Ignore false talk of royalty: maneuvers need humility, not crowns or jewels or pageantry. Let's not pretend we're enemies invested in these tournaments competing for a day of praise. I think you're wanting progress too beyond the cardboard armor, shields, these backdrop castles, paper swords. Forget crass gambits, sad pursuits, the made-up banners, plastic grails. The stalemate was no strategy. Let's check and best ourselves instead and make a nation love may reign —in all directions—glorious! Or would you be "victorious" and game away so hatefully? Know love is my Excalibur. .END OF POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2026
Image credit: The Radiance of Stars Is within You by Robert J. Tiess © Copyright 2015 Description: the image is a portrait of an otherworldly being that's somewhat human in appearance. Beams of light emanate from the being's head. The being wears a flowing robe and a necklace bearing a glowing medallion. Behind, there are stars and maybe planets varying in size and brightness. The being smiles with eye closed and seems to be contemplating something (life? the universe? love?) joyfully and with incredible warmth.
Image credit: Winter's Givings by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2007 Alt text description: three polar bears (one small, one medium, one large) watch snowflakes descend. The polar bears seem entranced if not amused. The snowflakes are large, richly geometrical, and highly stylized. There is snow throughout the picture and a hint of stars in the background. It's an enchanted sort of image, not photorealistic, one focusing mostly on the natural beauty and magic of winter.
Image credit: Let Your Heart Overflow with Love by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2011 Alt text description: the image is filled with traditional simple symbols of hearts reaching out in all directions. There are smaller hearts within larger hearts, brighter hearts among darker hearts. Many hearts are overlapping, and most are interconnected. The image overflows with love as hearts go past the margins of the image, perhaps into infinity or eternity.
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Landscape Painting Meditations .THE POEM: No stony summits grating sky. No heavens drenched in heavy grays. Today, I'm painting clarity, azure softness, snowy heights, and water slowed to mirroring ethereal serenity, an art of healing, comforting, forgiving, living for the light, with calmness reaching everybody, earth at peace with everything. .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Your Alexandria THE POEM: How many aisles, high and deep with volumes of uncommon knowledge, stock your mind's bright library? What might I find in that fine light? New truths? Perspectives? Lessons? Dreams? Experiences? Histories? Imagination hesitates, but I've my theories, plus a hunch there's plenty esoterica: I picture parchment, cobwebbed scrolls, if read (and ever understood), unlocking cosmic scholarship, part arcane wisdom figured lost in flaming Alexandria, then something of eleven worlds, each humbling me with untold shelves, which verse me in my nescience yet urge me to skim all I can, if I could stay past closing time, leave one lamp lit, read for an hour, ten minutes, just one chapter. Please. . THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
The Ephemeral Aesthetics of Snowflakes by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2014. The image features a large bright multi-faceted and iridescent snowflake that seems like it could very well be the star on top of a giant Christmas tree. Smaller snowflakes appear in the background.
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Remontant .THE POEM: Why now, much closer than before, do I trace furrows, scales, and search for finer lines in barks of poplar, maple, pine, and oak? Why am I eavesdropping on all these crows, or listening for finches, sparrows, larks, or waiting lakeside for returning geese? I've sensed and loved extraordinary things, the unseen owls, hid lotuses in mud, sequoia giants, monarchs, banyan trees. My eyes, more like the canyons, grander, part on earth I've scanned but barely scratched as deep. Fresh clarity brings urgent light to life! Hydrangeas, were you as full as this? Wisteria! You've beautified my years! How many morning glories did I miss? .THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
Image credit: Microcosm by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2007 Alt text description: there is a traditionally-arrayed snowman (complete with a hat and a carrot nose) inside a snow globe. inside, he is accompanied by the glitter of fake snow suspended in water, several candy canes, and some indications of snow at his feet. The snow globe base is fairly ornate with little decorations of gold dots, latticework, and circles of green and red. Outside of the snow globe there are large snow flakes falling as the snowman seems to look at them with perhaps a wishful or wistful expression.
Image credit: Fearless through the Shadow Valley by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2016 Alt text description: A person holding a lantern illuminates a valley full of shadows. The person approaches us, the viewers. The valley sides are dark, but the small lantern casts strong light. And this is appropriate, as this image draws inspiration directly from the Biblical book of Psalms 23 ("Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me;").
Image credit: Cancelling the Noise by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2014. Image Description: A woman with dark hair and dressed in shades of pink listening to music. Behind her are angled geometrical clusters of circles and rectangles suggesting the noise mentioned in the title of this image.
Image Credit: "One of the Many Advantages of Being Different" by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright © 2009. This image features a giant red U-shaped magnet standing on its magnetic tips on a table. Around each of its two magnetic tips are dozens of small metal paperclips stuck to it. There is a larger blue paperclip seemingly unaffected by the magnet, perhaps because it is not made of metal. Whatever the case, it's in its own space and not caught up in the inescapable magnetic attractions the other paperclips are inextricably experiencing.
Image credit: "Those in the Very Bright Room Tend to Scorn or Mock Any Notion of a Lamp" by Robert J. Tiess © 2008. The image depicts a corner of very bright room shown at an angle. Lying on the floor is a table lamp that has been toppled and unplugged.
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Acoustic Renewals THE POEM: arthritic fingers forgotten guitar resurfacing burnishing uncoiling strings loving recovery glorious songfulness salvaging memories rescuing soul THE END OF THE POEM: Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
Image: A Time to Dance by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2008. The nearly abstract image depicts a very lively dancer in shades of bright yellow. Clothing fabric seems to be flowing and suggesting sweeping movements, turns, and velocity. There are abstract fragments surrounding the dancer that may add to the sense of the motion or the turning blurring world around the dancer.
Image: Time Past by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2013. The image shows an elaborate metallic clock with four Roman numerals (12, 3, 6, 9) and other marks indicating hours. Around the clock are swirling shapes emerging from and entangling the clock. Shadows interplay with reflections. There are hints of concentric circles further out and around the clock. At once, it seems to be a meeting of the abstract and the concrete, at least in this depicted instant.
Image: The Moments in Our Hours by Robert J. Tiess Copyright 2017. The image shows a large metallic thick circle on a wall with many smaller clock-like circles clustered and layered in the center of it. The hands of the smaller clocks point in all directions. There is the hint of carpet below bordered by a basic wood baseboard. The carpet is red. The upper part of the image is golden, nearly monotone. The clocks and the greater circle containing them are reflective.
Image credit: "Fear Not Winning Through Peace" by Robert J. Tiess Copyright 2014. The image shows someone meditating peacefully and meditating. Beams of light or power emanate from the individual as gigantic menacing robots appear to be shaken or overcome by the energy.
Image: After the Phoenix Falls, It Must by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2009. A partially abstract and highly geometric representation of a firey mythical Phoenix bird ascending with glowing red and yellow wings. It is arising from what might be ashes of its former self.
Image Acoustic Guitar Solo by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2018. The light golden brown image displays an acoustic guitar dissecting into many different pieces depicted at various angles. The sound hole of the guitar is positioned centrally in the image.
Image: Iceberg of Understanding by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2007. The image shows an iceberg mostly submerged in the sea. Only the bright icy tip of the iceberg is revealed. A seagull sits at the top of the tip. Other seagulls fly around. Behind is a soft and calm sky. Below the water, the bulk of the large iceberg (which slightly resembles a face) is surrounded by darker waters and silhouettes cast by a school of fish.
Image: "Taking a Leap of Faith" by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2007. The image shows a skier leaping from a snowy high point. The skier is dressed in orange and wearing blue-striped skis. He is holding ski poles, and he is also wearing a helmet and goggles. There is a patch of blue sky behind the skier. The snow looks heavy with hints of rocks beneath it, suggesting an element of danger as the skier lunges into the openness and down towards more challenging passages of snow and rocks.
A Middletown Thrall Library Information Awareness G u i d e: Why Libraries Matter A Concise Overview of What Public Libraries Do Healthy public libraries are important to democratic societies because they allow everyone, regardless of income, to make informed decisions about their government, their health, their education, and their consumption of goods. Democracy only truly exists and thrives as long as there is equitable access to all information in all formats. This is one of many reasons why public libraries are essential to modern civilization and ultimately the future of every person. Excellent public libraries also allow anyone, regardless of income, to educate themselves. This gives everyone an opportunity to achieve personal and occupational success. Education empowers you to do and understand more. The public library is a critical component of our public education system. Libraries are sometimes called “The People’s University.” While students and teachers benefit greatly from libraries, those who cannot afford the escalating costs of education may also take advantage of our resources. Libraries also provide people with access to information technologies, such as research databases, electronic books, word processors, and other data on the World Wide Web. Thrall also works every week to bring quality Internet-based resources to your attention through our website (www.thrall.org). Many people would have no access to the Internet if they did not have a public library to visit. Unlike search engines, which are increasingly commercial and plagued by irrelevant results or questionable content, public libraries enjoy helping you find the best information available wherever it is. We are not motivated by profit: your information needs motivate us, and we enjoy helping you excel! BlueSky has limited the ALT text here. Please see the PDF link in the post for the rest of the text in this document. Thank you.
Image: Renaissance, Reason, Revolution, Reverie by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2017. A series of images in four sections, stating from the top: 1. An abstract series of wavering blue yellow cyan and gold lines escaping definition. 2. A head appearing to be at rest between alternating textural patterns of swirling shapes and concentric rectangles and smaller circles. 3. A 3D hollow cube s surrounded by angled circles and smaller circles to the right. On either side there are buttresses. 4. A series of five classic Greek columns occur on the right and left sides of this section of the image. In the center of this section are three concentric shells. The topmost and smallest shell appears to have a pearl floating about it.
In my experience... humility strengthens. Caring is courageous. Mindfulness matters. Hope needs honesty. Imagination is indispensable. Truth illuminates. Equality is essential. Freedom is fearless. Respect is rudimentary. Love is unconditional. Empathy empowers. Peace is mighty. Kindness is the key. ____________________________________________________ Robert J. Tiess 2025
I love to share poetry insights, information, and experiences. Drawing from 40+ years of writing/reading poetry + lit/crit studies and a library career of over 30 years, I have some ideas and constructive advice to offer anyone welcoming my thoughts. What I'll NOT DO is tell you how to write. Your path is yours. __________________________________________________ Robert J. Tiess 2025
Image: "A Couple of Codependencies" by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2007. The image features an open black umbrella set down on the floor. The top of the umbrella faces the audience. A closed plastic water full of water is situated next to the umbrella. In the background there are diagonal stripes.
The image features stylized trees and scattered snowflakes of varying sizes. Poised on one of the branches is a red cardinal bird. The text at the top of the image contains the following words: Swift flares of crimson sweeps over ghosted canvases left by fallen snow: the cardinal's art of life. END OF POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright 2025. Image by Robert J. Tiess Copyright 2013.
Image: "Indoctrination" by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2007. The metallic image features a head with closed eyes. It is surrounded by sharp angular and concentric metal constraints. A heavy metal crown sits on the head. The person appears to be wholly and inextricably encased in this golden metal contraption. Almost noting other than the face of the individual is revealed within this severely limiting and steadfast environment. For all the gold here, there are many shadows and a sense of darkness throughout.
Image "Deep Sea Lights" by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2013. The image features deep sea creatures resembling jellyfish which are floating together and glowing with their own bioluminescent light.
Image: The Picture Frame, by Robert J. Tiess Copyright 2007. A gold series of ornately geometry and concentric frames within frames. A sphere with abstract tendrils appears to be emerging from--and then escaping--these frames, as if the art refuses to be constrained within the limits of the picture frame.
Image ("How Do Mirrors See Themselves?" by Robert J. Tiess Copyright 2011). The image features two mirrors. One mirror is lying flat on a reflective surface which is covered in tiny bits of another broken mirror. Another mirror, set upright on this surface, is angled down so as to give the appearance it is looking at the mirror on the reflective surface. The image is in black and white. The upright mirror appears to be made of metal, while the other mirror lying down might be plastic. The background is dark and also partly reflective.
The image features an emperor wearing an elaborate mask and crown of gold that conceals his fact. The mask and crown has small symmetrical projections flowing outward. The emperor's hands are open, held out, palm-sides upward. Over his hands float what appear to be eyes also encased in elaborately concentric and stylized gold meshes with thin projections emanating in all directions, much like his mask and crown. The title of this image is "The Emperor's New Vision, or Look, The Emperor Has No Eyes." The image was created by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2006.
An image: ENLIGHTENMENT by Robert J. Tiess, Copyright 2009. A person appears to be blissfully floating at the intersection of Yin and Yang in space. There are flowing and swirling lines, flowing fabric, and stars in the background.
AN EXCERPT FROM THE POEM "THE SNOW STORM" BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON: Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven, And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end. (FROM PUBLIC DOMAIN POEM AT POETS.ORG)
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Constituents of Matter THE POEM: Who doubts the power of one soul, go watch floods come of water drops, a beach emerge from grains of sand. Learn Earth's of dust. Sparks raise a blaze. Find blizzards climb by single flakes. Know small things make much larger things, like atoms through the universe and constitutions wrought of words. Discount no individual. THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Story Time 2300 AD THE POEM: Some centuries ahead of us, what sort of tales might any future youths be told? Will they have heroes? Monsters? Ghosts? Fantastic antics glitzed with pixie dust? The vintage myths we always passed along? Or will they learn more sincere histories? How wars deceived us into grievous peace or chasing greatness conjured wickedness. And what about the habitats? How woods became these supermarket parking lots and species disappeared with policies. Should storytellers skip those passages? Could episodes be sanitized? Revised? Romanticized? Become nostalgic twists? Or will some storied morals be preserved? If truth's too gruesome for an audience, what would that say for humankind? But then, who claims it has to end that way? What if we change the real narratives today? THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
The image contains five areas: three book covers, a small photo of the author, and an area of text that says: About the Poet: Recognized for crafting clear, creative, and compelling works, Robert J. Tiess began writing poetry in the 1980s. A SUNY New Paltz graduate with an English Literature degree, Robert has enjoyed an inspiring career in public libraries since 1995. His acclaimed poetry explores nature, human nature, and much more. You can explore his books and reviews of his publications at www.RobertJTiess.net. The three book covers are 1: GRACIOUS NATURE: POEMS ON EARTH AND LIFE. 2: MAY WE LEARN FROM THE EARTH: NATURE POEMS AND REFLECTIONS ON THE ENVIRONMENT. 3: THE HUMBLING AND OTHER POEMS. ALL THREE BOOKS ARE BY ROBERT J. TIESS.
There are two parts to this image: The First Part is the poem. THE TITLE OF THE POEM: From Human Natural THE POEM: ...from cosmic loam, the soil of stars, comes everything, runs everything, stops everything, starts everything. Let us acknowledge basic facts, ingredients of elements assembled here in special time, and let us give thanks to trees, the sea, that atmosphere so long prepared so there could be this air to breathe. Let us esteem ecology, how organisms unionize in habitats that work to thrive. And let us really give a damn when nature meets our negligence or some endangered thing goes lost… THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2024 The Second Part of the image features a book cover image that says: Gracious Nature: Poems on Earth and Life by Robert J. Tiess, author of The Humbling and May We Learn from the Earth. Behind the words is a sky full of beautiful clouds and mountains full of trees. There is a Five-Stars medallion on the cover, which was awarded by Readers' Favorite.
The text says: MOST GRATEFUL FOR OUR LIBRARIES. The autumnal-colored poster is surrounded by red yellow and orange books and leaves.
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: In Constancy THE POEM: I'm thankful for the steadiness of earth, the mantle sealing its infernal core, the mountainous foundations, continents, our firmament of constant dateless light, devoted boulders loving gravity, round rocks at rest within the river's run, maturing woods, tenacious spider webs, long cricket concerts twitching into fall. Deep-rooted oaks still branch away today. Old tortoises heave homes toward far unknowns. Both teach me "age and pace with grace" now that I near another milestone. They get the steadiness I seek is not an age averse to metamorphosis, or stagnant intervals which herald death. I favor balance, nature's evenness: to pass what varies yet not lose the soul of what's so good, so true and beautiful, so vital that it girds the world against the treachery of pandemonium. THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess © Copyright 2024
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: 3.6 Ways of Looking at Hokusai's Great Wave THE POEM: i. I am the Starving Wave of Waves, the Omnivore of Obstacles, devouring what slows my roll. ii. Or I’m the oaring fisherman, confronting currents pointlessly. iii.1 I'm neither Fuji nor the sea. The “greatest wave” is less than sea. Iii.2 What's great? Mount Fuji! Least here? Me. THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: With One Above Celestial THE POEM: No constellations? Stars should envy how we glow. Heaven's in this light whirling through our galaxy: look what loving worlds we've made! Moonbeams need not come. Enchantment's cast already: lotuses arrive! Fireflies, go save your flames. Cool air, warm hands, much lightning! Sunrise since midnight, winters never less than spring, slow strolls melting snow. Love is kissing time goodbye. January feels July! Who needs nightingales? Silence tangos through the room. Who knew fingers sing? Dawning in these yawning eyes ballads only fire croon. Gardens sweet with peace: suddenly such butterflies pollinating dreams! Inner rivers yielding seas, universe-revealing skies! THE END OF THE POEM Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: At the Exhibitions of the Vacant Frames THE POEM: Huge spaces where no painting finds your eyes, but we'd meet frames [ gigantic plastic frames ] of varied angles, different thicknesses, each one revealing and surrounding things and people wandering or looking through, perhaps observing someone waving back and frowning or laughing unexpectedly. We weren't masterpieces then, more like the bleary wearied painters being watched. You couldn't really call it portraiture, since no one sat too long or stood to be immortalized as gimmick art that day. We'd search for doorways, any EXIT sign that let us return to our realer worlds. Outside, bold OPEN signs [ behind dense panes reflecting failing lights ] met tired minds oblivious to nightly ironies through city shopping blocks of mockery, where winning windows draw you into wares and let you stare and catch your mirrored face as thoughts get lost in costly spectacles. THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Popped Art THE POEM: SOUP CANS SOUP CANS SOUP CANS TALL against condensed museum walls consuming rooms with names framed by Authorities who stewed if You of Spoons & Bowls sipped ordinary food for thought. THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: Petitioning My Syllables THE POEM: Dear Words, please be gentle welcome hands prepared to bear a searching soul across another spreading rift between these grounds divided by the striking lies we lean upon to feel complete and masterful. If you would do this—lend relief, some real feeling empathy to someone trembling at the ledge of what could be a canyon soon— then lead them back to love's one land— you'd prove there is no vanity in all the life I'll sacrifice to write, believing truth should heal what cruelty breaks and silence takes from what deceptions left for dead. THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025