Robert J. Tiess
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Robert J. Tiess
@robertjtiess.bsky.social
840 followers 950 following 750 posts
Published poet/author/writer
Poetry/nature/library/education advocate
Musician artist philosopher
Career in libraries
Married to Sandra Sprague

Books:
+ Gracious Nature
+ May We Learn from the Earth
+ The Humbling & Other Poems

robertjtiess.wordpress.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
robertjtiess.bsky.social
1/5

Libraries have always mattered, and they always will.

Libraries always supported and spread democracy.

That must and will continue to happen.

Libraries advocate for everyone and inspire more people daily.

#library #libraries #freedom #democracy #liberty #education #librarians #books
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.
December 6, 2025 at 6:02 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
It's my constant wish that poets and writers will have the freedom, courage, and clarity to write as they wish.

It's also my hope they will want to learn more about the many vital aspects of their craft:

self-educating so to know how to revolutionize.

#poetry #poets #writing #writers #education
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.
December 6, 2025 at 4:57 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
As a poet and a person, I try to learn day by day.

I want to share more of those personal educations.

Based on the little I do know, I can say #humility and #empathy are more empowering and essential than most people realize.

I hope you agree.

#poetry #experience #lessons #life #learning #advice
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
December 6, 2025 at 3:56 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
I support the right of all poets
and writers to write as they want,
as they will, as they must.

Your paths are yours, friends!

#poetry #poetrycommunity #poets #writingcommunity #writer #writerslife #writers #writing #advice #freedom #creativity #journey #experience #insights #ideas #individuality
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
December 6, 2025 at 2:42 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
1/2

Juxtaposition can be powerful in poetry and other writing.

It's about placing different things near each other in a text.

Why? Reasons include...

+ exploring opposites, parallels
+ comparing or distinguishing things
+ playing upon contradictions
+ creating paradoxes, irony, tension

#poetry
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.
December 5, 2025 at 5:09 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
My cardinal poem

originally submitted to a "WordKu" (5/7/5 words) challenge.

I paired it here with a 2013 BlenderArtists Weekend Challenge vector-style project of mine: blenderartists.org/t/challenge-...

ALT text + poem link: allpoetry.com/poem/1820415...

#poetry #poem #birds #winter #snow #art
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.
December 5, 2025 at 3:21 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
1/2

Poetry is the opposite of indoctrination.

Indoctrinators drill people to accept things without further question or thought.

Poetry promotes...
contemplation,
broad-mindedness,
wonder,
feelings,
discovery,
interpretation,
creativity,
individuality,
and much more!

#poetry #freedom #mindfulness
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.
December 4, 2025 at 5:06 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
For #vss365 #aphotic

.

DESPITE NO LIGHT

"Aphotic"
(as
in
sea)
can
mean
where
sunrays
sink
and
darkness
starts,

but

deeper
beings
see
it's
where
most
lives
survive
by
their
own
light.

.

#poetry #poem
© me 2025

#bioluminescence #light
#ocean #sea #fish
@vss365hq.bsky.social
@sanjar.bsky.social
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.
December 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
Poems can work like paintings, portraits, landscapes, windows, photos:

through them, we meet details of larger things not wholly visible or appreciable unless we think outside "picture frames" and move beyond partial views to pursue truths past portrayals or what seems apparent to us.

#poetry #art
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.
December 3, 2025 at 3:09 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
Poems hold mirrors to the world, reflecting things, us, etc

Mirror physics also pertain to this witnessing:

viewpoints, angles, locations, distances, light...

Such factors can vary how poems reveal or get interpreted.

One poem can show many things to readers at different points in life!

#poetry
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.
December 3, 2025 at 12:21 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
Poetry is democracy:

we're free to read, express
and interpret as we will.

Poetry empowers minds
to explore new views
past old perceptions.

It compels us to go beyond
what we've known
and been shown.

No one has the final say.

#poetry #freedom #liberty

Image:
The Emperor's New Vision
© 2006 RJT
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.
December 2, 2025 at 8:55 PM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
When asked why I spent so much of my life on poetry, I like to point out that, among other things, poetry is an all-inclusive space where I can contemplate, connect, and create while standing at the crossroads of knowledge, art, reality, eternity, and everything before and beyond.

#poetry #poets
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.
December 2, 2025 at 6:15 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
A fitting poem on the eve of our first big snowstorm in NYS...

The Snow Storm
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
written 1835

Emerson's snow metaphors (e.g."north wind's masonry / Out of an unseen quarry") are admirable nearly 200 years later!

The poem:
poets.org/poem/snow-st...

#poetry #poems #winter #snow
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)
December 2, 2025 at 1:02 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
My poem for #smallpoemsunday

"Constituents of Matter"

ALT text in image

+ poem text link: allpoetry.com/poem/1879967...

#poetry #poem
#power #individuality #individuals
#inspiration #nature #physics #harmony
#unity #strength #together #teamwork #solidarity

@tomsnarsky.bsky.social
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
December 1, 2025 at 5:29 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
My poem "Story Time 2300 AD"

I hope you find it interesting.

ALT text in image

+ poem link: allpoetry.com/poem/1879861...

#poetry #poem #poems #stories #myths #history #truth #future #change
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
November 30, 2025 at 8:04 PM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
My poetry collections:

Gracious Nature:
Poems on Earth and Life

May We Learn from the Earth:
Nature Poems and Reflections
on the Environment

The Humbling and Other Poems

Books include essays.

More Info + Book Reviews:
robertjtiess.wordpress.com

#booksky #poetry #books #poetrycommunity #reading
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.
November 28, 2025 at 10:23 PM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
An excerpt of my poem Human Natural from my third book...

Gracious Nature:
Poems on Earth and Life

ALT text in image.

More about the book...
robertjtiess.wordpress.com
(includes reviews, links)

#poetry #poems #gratitude #nature #ecology #ecopoems #endangeredspecies #earth #environmentalism #life
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.
November 28, 2025 at 1:49 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
I began my public library career in 1995.

Since then I'd be honored and grateful to work with many inspiring colleagues in serving our amazing communities.

Can we please take a moment to give thanks for libraries and their devoted teams?

#thanksgiving #library #libraries #librarians #gratitude
The text says: MOST GRATEFUL FOR OUR LIBRARIES. The autumnal-colored poster is surrounded by red yellow and orange books and leaves.
November 27, 2025 at 6:43 PM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
A poem I'd like to share with you on this day of collective gratitude...

"In Constancy"

If you read this, thank you.

I hope you enjoy it.

ALT text in image + poem text link:
allpoetry.com/poem/1796552...

#poetry #thanksgiving #gratitude #grateful #thanks #givingthanks #nature #earth #constancy
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
November 27, 2025 at 5:45 PM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
My #wave #poem for #blueskyrelay

"3.6 Ways of Looking at Hokusai's Great Wave"

Inspired by Hokusai's artworks:

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gre...

2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-...

ALT text in image.

#poetry #poems
#art #artists #ocean #sea #nature #Japan #humility
@blueskyrelay.bsky.social
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
November 24, 2025 at 5:37 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
My poem for an Ono No Komachi-inspired poetry challenge...

"With One Above Celestial"

I hope you enjoy it.

ALT text in image
+poem link: allpoetry.com/poem/1878609...

About Ono No Komachi:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ono_no_...

#poetry #poems #tanka #waka #love #romance #couples #inspirational #poets
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
November 23, 2025 at 10:49 PM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
My poem "At the Exhibitions of the Vacant Frames"

something for a Late Night Poets poetry challenge.

A bit of a concept going on. I hope you find it interesting.

ALT text in image

+ poem text link: allpoetry.com/poem/1874485...

#poetry #poets #writing #art #perspectives #viewpoints #reality
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
November 4, 2025 at 3:58 AM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
1/2

My poem "Popped Art"

submitted to an "art and authority" poetry challenge.

It was inspired by the Pop Art movement and Warhol's soup can paintings, which some critics saw as challenging classical or elitist definitions of art.

ALT text + poem link: allpoetry.com/poem/1874065...

#poetry #art
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
November 1, 2025 at 3:13 PM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
"Petitioning My Syllables"

a poem I wrote for an Emily Dickinson ("If I can stop one heart from breaking, / I shall not live in vain") inspiration poetry challenge.

ALT text in image
+ poem link: allpoetry.com/poem/1872924...

#poetry #poems #hope #inspirational #healing #writing #helping #caring
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
October 28, 2025 at 4:41 PM
robertjtiess.bsky.social
A somewhat eerie #poem of mine for the season...

"The Undead Lessons of the Dead"

ALT text in image

+ poem text link: allpoetry.com/poem/1872260...

#poetry #poems #Halloween #ghosts #dead #death #horror #scary #haunted #teachers #history #past #education #lessons #learning #students #progress
THE TITLE OF THE POEM: The Undead Lessons of the Dead THE POEM: Too few of us were willing to attend the conferences of the dead, their tired diatribes of dire dates and long-forsaken names for places we'll no longer place where we're forgetting them. Now, is it really any wonder they've been taunting us and haunting us with deathless histories of what remains at stake, to be awakened, or necessary to be freed? Their rattling caveats and dying tidings cry out for one lone listener tonight, but who among us honestly wants to know those droning ghosted hopes and disembodied admonitions howling at these monstrous hours? The skeleton sermons, Reaper speeches, cadaverous committees and counselors: they're repeatedly reminding us of what we failed to refine, rewind, or repair, along with what must heal, be restored in time, or relegated, at last, to the blasted past. It's perilous, disregarding them. Against our momentary impulses, receive their pleas. They'll never "rest in peace" until there's peace. Let's hear them, think to grieve with them, believe they're not quite done instructing us, lest tomorrow gets possessed by every yesteryear. THE END OF THE POEM. Poem by Robert J. Tiess Copyright © 2025
October 26, 2025 at 2:28 AM