Reality: Truth, Words and Love

By Vincent M. Riccardi

The mélange of poetry shared here develops internal connections respecting the elements of its title and the lifelong sensibilities of the author. The title of the collection revolves around how we as modern persons realize Reality as a function of Truth as revealed through the innuendo of Words and the existentialism of Love: Reality – Truth - Words - Love. These elements are manifest in the most mundane and commonplace facts and phenomena through to the most arcane and erudite ideas and emotions. We usually separate erudite and mundane on the one hand, and facts and emotions on the other. But here is an effort to mix the two extremes with each other and the in-between. Not included in the title is something embedded – some might say “implicit” – in the four words just discussed: Time. That is, Reality, Truth, Words and Love all require (or in some way depend on) Time for their respective intensions and extensions (as Ludwig Wittgenstein might say). Time is an element of Reality and that fact is literally in the many of the poems shared here. The reader should be sensitive both to the unspoken allusions to Time, as well as to the spoken ones (e.g., “moments,” “first,” etc.). Juxtaposing these elements and the circumstances of their manifestations hopefully provides a new perspective on the Life that is the Reality for us in the 21st Century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669842262

Vincent M. Riccardi

The author was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, New York. In late 1947, his family moved to Southern California. He went to UCLA, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in zoology, and had a very strong attachment to the linguistic philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. He graduated in Georgetown University Medical School on June 6, 1966. He did his internship and residency in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he met his wife, Susan (an element of many of the poems), a nurse in the Veteran’s Administration Hospital. They had met in February 1967 and were married in July 1967. His genetics fellowship was at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Hospital. He was a major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from July 1970 to the end of 1971. His academic faculty career took him to Denver, Colorado; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Houston, Texas. In Houston in 1981, he founded and directed the Neurofibromatosis Institute. In June 1990, they moved to La Crescenta, California, and he was the director of a chromosome analysis laboratory. At the end of his contract, he obtained an MBA and founded American Medical Consumers. He gave up his medical license in 2015. Vincent started writing these poems in medical school and continued composing them at present.

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Copyright © 2022 by Vincent M. Riccardi.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/08/2022

Xlibris

844-714-8691

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Again and Again

All of Us

Alone in a Spring Rain

Arrivederci, Joe Zisa

ATPome ATPoem

Aurora’s Gold Canary Blues

Banning High School Reunion

Baptismal Eucrasy

Bereft of Friendship

Blue Diamond Blues

Body and Mouth as a Voice

Buss to the Future

Café au Lait Spots

Captive

Captured Moments

Choreography

Claire Leonard

Code Blue Blues

Colorado

Complete

Complicity

Compulsion Clouded

Consequences

Couplets 2002–2013

Cross

Cups for Wine

Dad (Ralph)

Declarations of Rain

Denouement

Determination

Dusk in Germany

Early-Morning Neighbors

Echoes of August

Ecstasy

Empty Ballot

Expectant Thanks

Flashdance

Gwendolyn Park

Hands

Handsome

Heat of the Moment

Hello

Heretofore

High There

Homonyms

I Have Three Minutes

Incessant Shadows

Inertia 1

Just above Reality

Late-Sunday Afternoon

Lew’s First Fellow

Lord’s Prayer in Omes

Love as Voussoir

Love as a Desert Flower

Love Is One

Mask

Melding

Mess of Tangles

Midday Sun

Moon

Moon Song

Moonkiss

More than a Number

More than Bumps

Near Miss

Never-Ending Moments

Nonstop

Now and Again

Oasis

October 25

Ode to an Oh So Laden Bin

Once

One Beginning

Orange Glow

Pastels in a Dream

Paths

Patient Waiting

Poem, March 2020

Poemless

Poetry

Presence

Confounding Loss

Princesses of Chengdu

Promises Displaced

Puzzle

Recursive Now

Reification

Respite

Rhapsody

Rich Heart

Sap Moon

Saturday, 12-13-14

Shafts

Snow Rhyme

Softhaven

Some Time

Song in Silence

Start of Something New

Still Too Many Words

Sunrise

Taken

Tales of the Pup’s Wagging Tail

Tender Mercies

The Answer

The End

The Plane Beyond

The Way Back

Thou

Threads

Time Demand and Momentum

Titillation

To Dr. R.

To Sue on Returning from Work

To Taste Responsibility

Truth as Perspective

Truths and Color

Two Becomes Everything

United Airlines Flight 175

Wasted Time

When Not Accounts for Nott

Where Has Love Gone?

Will

Wine Day in Absentia

To Susan Leona Bogda Riccardi, the basis for our reality.

I started writing the poems in medical school to give voice to feelings in contrast to the hard-fact science characterizing the curriculum. The poetry was emphasized when I met my wife, Susan. I continued through to present, being convinced as a genetic scientist-clinician that the most important reality had its origin in relationships between two people.

Sue and I have realized that reality for fifty-five years as of 2022!

Preface

The mélange of poetry shared here develops internal connections respecting the elements of its title and the lifelong sensibilities of the author. The title of the collection revolves around how we, as modern people, realize reality as a function of truth as revealed through the innuendo of words and the existentialism of love—Reality, truth, words, love. These elements are manifest in the most mundane and commonplace facts and phenomena through to the most arcane and erudite ideas and emotions. We usually separate erudite and mundane, on the one hand, and facts and emotions, on the other. But here is an effort to mix the two extremes with each other and the in between. Not included in the title is something embedded—some might say implicit—in the four words just discussed: time. That is, reality, truth, words, and love all require (or, in some way, depend on) time for their respective intensions and extensions (as Ludwig Wittgenstein might say). Time is an element of reality, and that fact is in the many of the poems shared here. The reader should be sensitive both to the unspoken allusions to time and the spoken ones (e.g., moments, first, etc.). Juxtaposing these elements and the circumstances of their manifestations hopefully provides a new perspective on the life that is the reality for us in the twenty-first century.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my wife, Susan Leona Riccardi, and Marie-Paul Mussche, Steven D. Rhodes, Tibby Lee, John Kralik, and Leslie Holmes for their encouragement and feedback!

Again and Again

An instance

of coincidence

more than once

has become a moment

mutually transcendent,

as tho’ you and I are