Peter is an aspiring poet, whose work is primarily religious and spiritual poetry. He lives alone with his cat, and enjoys the view in Mill Valley from his smallish apartment. "It is the right size apartment for me as I have just as much as I want to take care of and not more."

 

At the age of 61, as of 2007, October, he is really retired. Though he works part time as an apartment manager, and writes some for a blog and also a website, he has time for reading and Church--volunteer work, too.

 

You can see his poetry on his blog: www.petermenkin.blogspot.com . Your comments on his poetry are encouraged and of course welcome.

 

Peter is a Religion Writer for San Francisco Examiner.com (part time). His page is here: www.examiner.com/x-10965-SF-Religion-in-the-News-Examiner He also contributes to The Church of England Newspaper.

 

Seasons of Faith: Spiritual Poetry by Peter Menkin, readings on a CD - $7 (mill valley)

 

Audio readings of poetry by Parish Poet Peter Menkin. This CD is a homemade production.

 

Cost is $7, $3 shipping.

 

Please send email to inquire or order.

menkbabeus@yahoo.com

 

You will be invoiced by PayPal prior to sending your order.

 

Thank you,

 

Peter Menkin, a Parish Poet

   

Note: Image of Mary's face, partial take of Stained Glass of Mary with baby Jesus, Church of Our Saviour,

 

Mill Valley, CA USA. Photo by Joan Peck. Project Editor, Juliana Jensen.

  

Biography:

I've been retired since 55 years of age, taking a disability retirement. Currently, I am a part time apartment manager for 56 units (elderly & disabled) in Mill Valley where I am resident. The job ends this January, 2010.

 

I am looking forward to having lunch with my brother Kit, who lives in Monte Sereno near San Jose. He and his girlfriend of 20 or more years, Sue, will take my girlfriend Linda and I to lunch in Tiburon this January. Kit is 68 years old, also retired. He is a widower.

 

This 2009 just passed was a good year, including having this small, one bedroom apartment in Mill Valley among trees, and spending much time with my Church of Our Saviour (Episcopal) as a central part of my life. As an Oblate of Immaculate Heart Hermitage I have enjoyed living a more religious & spiritual life these past 15 years or so--more than ever. I am Episcopalian, and the monks who are Benedictine, Camaldolese are Roman Catholic. Why a part of a Roman Catholic order if I am Episcopalian. This is unusual, yes, but it is a result of the charism of friendship.

 

I hope old friends from school remember me from my teenage and even elementary school years. I have a picture from Paul Revere Junior High of a group of us, and also from Canyon Elementary. I will try to find both and post.

 

I recall I was so involved in athletics and school life that I rarely did much else. I did date some girls, including Gloria Garvin with whom I am still in touch. We have a daughter named Jennifer whose picture is posted somewhere in this section or somewhere. She and I attended Santa Monica High School, and later she earned a PhD, quite an accomplishment.

 

Later in life I went to The Episcopal School for Deacons located at the Graduate Theological Seminary near UC Berkeley's north gate. It was a wonderful experience.

 

Probably, my brain was not fully in gear all the time as a youth, and though I had thoughts of being a writer or journalist, I did do many things as an adult--including writing, too.

When young I enjoyed doing things for unusual reasons. For instance, I joined the US Air Force because I liked the uniforms. About ten years ago I bought a used, 1991 Toyota Tercel because I liked the color and the hubcaps. Ah, well.

 

The wildest thing I ever did in school was put out a magazine called "Whomp." I sold thousands of copies at 25 cents, some outside California and off my immediate campus at Santa Monica High School. Porter Leach was the Boys Vice Principal, and after suspending me for a week from the swim team, I quit producing and selling the magazine. Porter is 95 today, January 10, 2010. I now this because he went forward at Church of Our Saviour in Mill Valley where I attend and sit two pews behind him. He received a blessing on his birthday and a round of applause from the congregation. He said, Thank you to everyone.

 

Mostly, I've lived in Marin County, California North of San Francisco. Though offered many opportunities, I chose to stay here where I like the living. Even when in New York City for two years, I turned down offers like that of The Wall Street Journal and CBS. The WSJ wanted me to go to Cincinnati for them, and CBS offered Florida. One time The Virginia Daily Pilot wanted me to come to their city and be Sunday magazine editor of their newspaper. I stayed home. Ah, well.

 

My biggest surprise was being injured on the job by a Hepatitis B shot that went bad. It took two years of physical therapy to come back to the use of my arms. It took more than five years for the pain to abate. This occurred around 1994.

 

I applied for a job writing about religion for San Francisco Examiner.com (the website, not print). Eight months after application they hired me and I have liked this part time job as a Religion Writer. I write two to four stories a week, which is a lot if you ask me.

I remain single, having been divorced from my one wife sometime in the early 70s. I have not heard from her since around 1983, which is too bad as I want to know what is going on with her. She remarried many years ago. I did not, but currently have a girlfriend, Linda, who I have been seeing about four years.

 

I am writing poetry, religious & spiritual, and this has been a great joy for me these past 10 or eleven years. Recently, I created a homemade CD, "Seasons of Faith," with 30 poems read by me as written by me which runs 45 minutes. I am selling it for $7, plus $3 shipping. I've sold 11 to date as of January, 2010. Most buyers are Church friends, though it is advertised on the internet.

 

I am very happy as a retired man, and I enjoy living alone which I did not think I would like. Heretofore I've had a roommate all these years.

 

I do this by talking to friends, or as is said, "chilling out."

 

My inspiration as a youth came from teachers, and also from friends. I especially was fond of David Moody of Palisades High, and our mutual friend Kent Richland of Palisades High. Friendship has always been an inspiration to me.

 

I have a Russian Blue cat who is now 3 years old. She is adopted and was a rescued kitty. I love her to bits, and we are great pals.

 

Susie Hanna was my first big crush. I called her on the phone all the time. She talked to me, but would not go out with me. She was my dream. Perfect!!

 

My current age is 63. When I was 12, I thought that people my age now would be decrepit. I was so completely right.

 

Fact: Currently I aspire to a part time job for extra money, and I enjoy my poetry and writing on religion.

 

Fact: I share my home with a cat, which I find owns the place.

 

If I were to do one thing differently, I would not have lived with Beth Anderson. We enjoyed each other, and she had great places to live and did so much for me, but in retrospect, I've come to enjoy living alone so much that being separate and having my own place would have worked out better.

 

I also would not have followed Barbara Kahn to New York City, though I did enjoy my time in Manhatten. I thought we would get married, but the Rhode Island School of Design graduate threw me over for a Physicist whom she married. I hope she had five children!! and lived happily ever after.

 

Fact: What would surprise everyone at my high school reunion is how much weight I put on these past ten years. I won't tell you the numbers, but I did weigh 185 ten years ago.

 

Fact: In 10 years, I hope to be writing poetry. I'm going to get there by living.

Fact: My first job was at Palisades youth center, where I got paid pittance to make hamburgers. What I remember most about it is how much fun it was for me.

Fact: I remember this experience well,being part of a group during the summer to go on outings with a teacher who took us many places, when I lived in Larchmont, New York (Westchester County).

 

Fact: My father, who passed away in 2000 and lived into his eighties was a television & radio writer, very prolific. He wrote what are now well thought of radio shows like: The Green Hornet, Cisco Kid, Lone Ranger, among many, many others. He started in radio at the age of 18 and in his days of working in television also had a knack for westerns & detective stories. He wrote what were the Bs, mostly, but later became well remembered like: Highway Patrol, Sea Hunt, and literally hundreds of television shows. He did write some A television shows like: Have Gun Will Travel, Perry Mason, Lassie (just one), Bonanza. I especially remember his writing Rifleman, which is probably long forgotten today. He worked at home mostly, wore a cowboy hat around the house (and he liked to do so as he was a New Yorker who thought of California as the cowboy West). He used a portable royal typewriter, and typed with two fingers. He was a terrible typist and created many typos (not mistakes, really, for he could spell, etc.) He and my mother had a lifelong love affair and a long marriage. Oh, yes, when he moved us all to Mill Valley (Marin County, north of San Francisco), he commuted to the city by Greyhound daily, wore a suit (of course), and took his first retirement. In his fifties he went blind from Gloucoma, which made life more difficult for he loved reading, and was left with some sight to still barely do so.

 

Fact: A little known fact about my father the television & radio writer is that he was asked to create and write stories for one of the producers of the James Bond movies, who asked if he would do James Bond, Jr. This idea of theirs would be produced in London, and was to be a children's television series. My father had long talks with the James Bond people, but because he suffered so much from his blindness in the beginning, chose not to take on the job. That's my opinion, but just an opinion. The television show was never done, as a result.

Fact: New poem written in the wee hours of the morning, January 25, 2010:

 

Friend:

Let me explain this situation, for the hour of the morning is early. There is darkness, and it is quiet as I continue my work on the new poem. I've been thinking, and wishing, that a new poem would come to me, for it is in the waiting that a premonition can be found for the inspiration of a work. Even a short work like this religious poem that expresses how the Spirit of the Lord is Upon me.

 

It was earlier in the day, considering that the hour of the morning of the next day is here, so it was really the evening of the day before, that I was telling a friend that the spirit of God came upon the character of the Bible with long, curly hair who said, The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me. His name escaped my friend. But you know who I mean.

 

Anyway, this Epiphany in the season of Epiphany entered my mind and I became conscious of the words, which wrote themselves. So it seemed. So it seems. It was earlier today I spoke via internet with a new friend about poetry, and the inspiration that contemplation brings. I spoke about the inspiration that comes of taking Communion. I did not say that inspiration also comes of prayer. But he knows things like that, I am sure, for he teaches in College. People who go to Church know things about prayer, that some of those who don't get to do the work of attending worship have missed. Ah, so it is.

  

Speak to my Heart

By Peter Menkin

I have waited on the Lord,

In the stillness of my mind.

In the music of a hymn,

In a conversation with a friend.

It is in the loveliness of a flower,

And the color of the light of day

Lost in a prayer from the prayer book,

I have waited on the Lord.

My friend, it is the pleasure of life,

The knowledge in simplicity of knowing

One another, and even the times that come looming

To the psyche of trials and fears in a tunnel

Where confinement of spirit and mind

Make the soul weep and wonder

That there is comfort in knowing you

Lord. Speak to my heart.

   

Work biography:

 

Peter Menkin lives in Mill Valley, CA USA. An aspiring poet, he is 62 years of age as of 2008. His most recent work is with Infection Prevention, a blog, and Religious Intelligence, a London based website.

Peter worked as an editor with 8-wire.com and there as part of a team revised and clarified the work of science professionals writing on computer security topics. He also was a researcher for the Judge Mathis Television Show where his "beat" was the Oakland, CA USA courthouse, and San Francisco, CA USA courthouse. The job was to file synopsis of small claim court cases that met the editorial criteria of the producers so they could find people to take their small claims court case to the TV show.

His blog is now about 7 or 8 years old and consists of religious and spiritual poetry, book reviews, homilies and comments. His website, created more than 10 years ago, was revised and made more professional in 2004 and is a "personal" website with his poetry and something of his life.

Addendum: Some more about aspiring poet Peter Menkin's writing. His poetry writing, began about 9 or ten years ago, and was a good practice for him. Peter Menkin says, "I am glad I did begin. What's helped with this ongoing project of praise and thanksgiving of God in Christ, is my contemplative practices. As an Oblate of Immaculate Heart Hermitage, I do practice contemplative prayer. The Camaldoli, Benedictines have instructed and inspired, certainly led the way in my practice. Contemplation has fed my poetry and as an aspiring poet I am glad for inspiration. Mostly, I am glad for the prayer practice."

As a note, He has two books to his credit. The first written more than 35 years ago was a contract writing job done in tandem with other writers and editors (there was a researcher, too). The encyclopedia work, not-so-lengthy a book and part of a series of biographies of American Presidents, was written for Symphonette, but published by Mondadori in Italy. The subject was the then just investigated and then resigned-from-office President Richard Nixon. At the time of the writing he lived in a studio apartment on West 81st Street, New York City USA, where he was located for about two years across the street from the Planetarium. He says, "My apartment was on the top floor. Sounds grand, and in my 20s it was a grand experience. I did love New York City (Manhatten)."

The second book is a compilation of columns by humorist Dave Barry: "Bad Habits," a selection of Mr. Barry's columns which were written for and distributed by Feature Associates, a small newspaper syndicate. The syndicate was run and owned by Peter Menkin for six years out of his home in Novato and San Rafael, CA USA circa the 80s, "Bad Habits" remains in print. That Novato and San Rafael locations are north of San Francisco in Marin County.

Feature Associates was listed by Writer's Digest, and one year a "Spotlight" article on Peter Menkin appeared about his role as Editor/Manager. The syndicate was in live contact with more than 1,200 newspapers, mostly in the United States.

You've probably not heard of this newspaper syndicate which offered Mr. Barry's columns once a week (column title: "Life and Related Subjects"). The weekly column had about 50 papers. It is a little known fact of Mr. Barry's early newspaper column career that he wrote his first columns each week for about 3 years under that title and for the just-about obscure Feature Associates.

Peter Menkin says, "Let me add, as I reminisce, I rarely if every changed anything in Mr. Barry's column as he wrote and developed his work from the beginning, for he did so well. My contribution was to comment, criticize, and direct his column writing. Is this editing? I think so. I hope it was contributive to his development as a newspaper columnist.

"Once Mr. Barry remarked I made money stuffing envelope and sending the material to newspapers. Amusing as it was as remark, the truth is Feature Associates was distributed via U.S. mail. It worked well: Never missed a deadline, never late for publication."

For about three years, again circa 1980, Peter Menkin's three year association with "Harper's" magazine, New York City, and Lewis Lapham continued. Peter Menkin remarks, "I consulted with that fine and admirable Mr. Lapham, whom I liked very much. I still think of it as a lucky stroke to have been a 'Harper's' magazine Contributing Editor, and I have a pdf file on each year as an example of a staff pages with my name for every of the three -it really was true. I am glad for the experience and relationship."

 

Currently, I am Religion Writer for San Francisco Examiner.com (website, not print), and contribute to The Church of England Newspaper--both circa March, 2010.

 

San Francisco Examiner.com web address:

www.examiner.com/x-10965-SF-Religion-in-the-News-Examiner

 

My blog:

www.petermenkin.blogspot.com

 

My website:

www.petermenkin.com