Bill Black

Bill Black has collected poems from his shows and recordings of over two decades for those who want to see what the poems look like. Most have never been in print other than as a script in Bill's pocket. He also gives some notes on how to perform poetry shows. These poems have been edited and polished in shows and recording studios. They bring laughs, sighs, a few tears and moments you will want to share aloud. This collection is the majority of three CDs and an audio book contribution set spanning from 2002 to 2012. It is a lighter point of view from the author of "Old Eyes, Grey Souls."'

Veterans are often heard to say "You wouldn't understand: you haven't been there " What are these images and memories that can be so misunderstood? Through poems that explore a veteran's soul, you are shown what these veterans wish family and friends could understand. Wars have colors, smells and images which can be both quickly and involuntarily summoned. To remember brings personal pain but to forget betrays wounded and dead fellow soldiers. These small groups of tormented people shape our world even though most people never know them. Bill Black grew up in communities of veterans from the theaters of war in World Wars I and II and Korea. He and his friends became the veterans of the wars in Vietnam and its following wars. He has watched the gradual recognition of some war caused diseases and disabilities and seen the more advanced models of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder replace "shell shock" and "combat fatigue." He has also seen the declining percentage of the population made of veterans and their families. His writings tell these stories. In ways that other written word methods cannot do, these poems can take the reader into the soldier's mind in a sometimes unpleasant trip. Read with care

A Book for Fathers about Fathers by Fathers What does a dad do when he's caught in a showdown with the "teen trinity" the sigh, the eye roll and the mutter? When he feels like a ghost at the dinner table or like a big lump in a pressure cooker of mashed potatoes? He has lunch with another dad and compares notes. When Bill Black and Tom Tozer met over greek salads at high noon on several occasions, they discovered they both were caught in the crossfire of the dreaded "trinity" and neither one had a clue. All they knew was that living with teenagers was frustrating, exasperating, even maddening. They pooled their ignorance and met with other fathers of teenagers. They held focus groups to find out how other dads handled those younger members of the family who occasionally stopped by the house for money and a meal. Collectively these kings of their castles uncovered three significant facts about fatherhood: (1) Dads don't readily share their feelings of confusion when it comes to parenting; (2) Dads don't have the resources or connections with other dads to provide them with opportunities to even consider sharing their feelings; and (3) Dads who are looking for ways to be better fathers value the thoughts and experiences of other dads who are just like them. Bill and Tom decided to pitch a weekly column to their local newspaper. It caught on quickly and today "Dads2Dads" appears in over 30 print and online publications across the country. Their new book, Dads2Dads: Tools for Raising Teenagers-We Survived and You Can Too (plus a few tirades) is an anthology of some of their most popular essays. As the authors are quick to say, the issues they address reflect the typical minefields of raising teenagers. Bill and Tom are not therapists or family-relations gurus. They are ordinary dads who worked hard and were lucky enough to produce extraordinary sons and daughters-much with the help of wonderful spouses and a lot of trial and error. In their book they admit to sometimes having felt unappreciated, ignored, even invisible in their own homes. They wanted their kids to be grateful for the food on their plates that they never finished, their bedroom sanctuaries they never cleaned and their pets whose poop they never scooped. They acknowledged that conversations would flow unabated if they had a set of cue cards with just the right responses written by their children. They often wondered if they were going deaf or if their precious offspring had their tongues pierced-the words from their mouths were so garbled. Over time they learned that no one talks on a battlefield-there's just a lot of combat. In the book, they prescribe calling a family summit. Bill and Tom also stress the importance of saying "I love you." Not "Luv ya" mind you, but "I love you." There is a difference. They write about self-esteem, peer pressure, the teen brain, sharing family stories, social media, role modeling, being a flop and surviving, living through your kids, playing second fiddle, being a single dad, reaching beyond your grasp, and your personal pr program (you do have one, you know). Bill and Tom also talk about the relationship with their own fathers. Dads2Dads offers all confused, conflicted and confounded fathers hope and reassurance that much of what they will teach and try to instill in their children will actually stick. It may not manifest itself for a few years, but dads who have worked hard and tried their best at being rock-solid fathers will one day see, hear and enjoy the fruits of their labors. Until then, there's Dads2Dads.

As it currently operates, the commercial real estate construction industry is a disaster full of built-in waste. Seventy-percent of all projects end over budget and late. The buildingSMART Alliance estimates that up to fifty-percent of the process is consumed in waste. Almost every project includes massive hidden taxes in the form of delays, cost overruns, poor quality, and work that has to be redone. Building new structures is a fragmented, adversarial process that commonly results in dissatisfied customers and frequently ends in disappointment, bitterness, and even litigation. The industry must change—for its own good and that of its customers. But while the industry has tried to reform itself, it can’t do it alone. Real change can only come from business owners and executives who refuse to continue paying for a dysfunctional system and demand a new way of doing business. The Commercial Real Estate Revolution is a bold manifesto for change from the Mindshift consortium—a group of top commercial real estate industry leaders who are fed up with a system that simply doesn’t work. The book explains how business leaders can implement nine principles for any project that will dramatically cut costs, end delays, create better buildings, and force the industry into real reform. The Commercial Real Estate Revolution offers a radically new way of doing business—a beginning-to-end, trust-based methodology that transforms the building process from top to bottom. Based on unifying principles and a common framework that meets the needs of all stakeholders, this new system can reform and remake commercial construction into an industry we’re proud to be a part of. If you’re one of the millions of hardcore cynics who work in commercial construction, you probably think this sounds like pie in the sky. But this is no magic bullet; it’s a call for real reform. If you’re an industry professional who’s sick of letting down clients or an owner who’s sick of cost overruns and endless delays, The Commercial Real Estate Revolution offers a blueprint for fixing a broken industry.