Patrick Randolph photo

Patrick T. Randolph

BIO: Patrick T. Randolph and his wife, Gamze, live in Madison, Wisconsin. Son of an English professor-farmer and a waitress-philosopher, Patrick grew up in the Norway pine, birch tree woods of northwestern Wisconsin. He received his B.A. in philosophy and Spanish language and literature from Beloit College and his first M.A. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Patrick supervised a recycling company in Chicago and worked in the fishing industry in Bristol Bay during the early 90s. He then taught English and coached volleyball for 5 years in western Japan; working at five junior high schools in the public school system of Toyosaka City in Niigata Prefecture. He also worked as a photo associate for Ofoto in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently, he teaches grammar and writing courses in the English as a Second Language Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also enrolled in the Applied Linguistics Program, and hopes to receive his second M.A. next year.

Patrick has been significantly influenced by the mystical Japanese Zen poets, the English poets, modern American poets, a number of poets from Norway, Russia, Spain, South America and, of course, Turkey. His greatest influence, however, is generated from his Mother and Father, and his most treasured inspiration comes from his wife.

PUBLICATIONS:
Poems have appeared or will appear in: Bear Creek Haiku, Bellowing Ark, Black- widow’s Web of Poetry, Brevities, Byline Magazine, California Quarterly, The Discerning Poet, The Door Peninsula Voice, Free Verse, Museletter, New Author’s Journal, Northern Lights Magazine, Oak Magazine, Offerings Quarterly, The Pink Chameleon: On-Line Journal, Poetry Depth Quarterly, Poetry Motel, Rearview Quarterly, The Rockford Review, The Rockford River Times, Sensations Magazine, Storyteller, the Wisconsin Poet’s Calendar, Write On!!, and many other anthologies and journals in Canada, Israel, Japan, and the States.

PHILOSOPHY:
Poetry is all that was, is and will be inside every moment of each moment’s now. Poetry is the Be-com-ing of Be-ing.

Patrick T. Randolph
914 Eagle Heights Apt. # B
Madison, WI 53705-1616

patrickrandolph2003
@yahoo.com
    POEMS:

BAITING THE HOOK

I bait the hook with a plump red worm
I caught this morning roaming in our asparagus patch.

Looking at this delicious meaty phenomenon
I can imagine the pleasure aroused in the fish
Upon discovering this worm in the clear cool water.

I finish baiting the hook and cast my line in the late afternoon lake.

And then I wait.
I wait.

Waiting is the essence of fishing,
Eliciting the mysticism of the act,
The heart of Eros,
The anticipation of what might be and become,
The joy of emptying all from the mind,
The self-realization of being born and born again
With every moment while
The wait, the great wait goes on.

The wait,
The perfect wait,
The grinning wait,
The omnific wait,
The wait.

For when the fish hits the hook and takes the bait
The magic of imagination is gone,
The erotic pulse,
The mystic nothingness,
The ideal dreams of compassion,
The joy of emptying all from the mind
Is replaced

By the sudden duty of catching the fish,
Reeling it in with patient motion,
Bringing it to the dock
And praying to the god of fish—
Promising
That I accept full responsibility
Of taking the fish’s life
For the sake of my own.

THE RECYCLERS

We are all natural recyclers
Of the most avid kind.
The concept is not new,
It did not start
With second hand chewed
Gum shared by your first love
In the fourth grade,
Not with the hand-me-downs
From Uncle Bobe,
Or the Goodwill store
On the corner of Ninth
And Washington,
Not with the saving of tin foil
During the Second World War.
No, recycling started with the re-
Using of souls—
From the time when we first were
To the time when it will be
Absolutely incomprehensible
To know just how many faces
And voices
Our souls have used
As meek and mighty masks.