Between truth
and falsity
In the cold
empty darkness
— lies a poem

(Dreamsleep: January, 2025)

Battling each
paradigm
I wandered alone
Straight into
the maelstrom
of thundering tomes

My nose
pointed North
spitting into the wind
Decision once made
a line crossed
from within

Reciting
a dogma
both precious and torn
The words fill my spirit
once lost
and forlorn

Chasing a promise
that’s eluded
so long
An Angel appears
to whose will
— I belong

(The New Room: January, 2025)

What would you pay
to erase a memory

What would you buy
to blot out the stain

What would you give
to not be forsaken

What would you take
to lessen the pain

What would you know
if the words came unstrung

What would you hear
if the silence prolonged

What would it be
if time was delinquent

What would it mean
— if the meaning was gone  

(Dreamsleep: January, 2025)

Oh to be
remembered
Not to be
forgot
Excuses lost
in borrowed time
Reasons
— dearly bought

(Dreamsleep: January, 2025)

On the road
we are
beyond
all consequence
Troubadours
of destiny
children
— of an ageless song

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Allergic
to the truth
Immune
to virtues glow
One infection
plagues my soul
Whose cure
— my sin forgoes

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Eating everything
on the menu
Dylan asked for more

His hunger
reestablished
leftovers on the floor

A bite into
the future
yesterday a *****

A meal once paid
forever staid
— new rawness to procure


(The New Room: December, 2024)

Ambition
is the best pursuit
the road to glory
calls

Ambition
is the worst pursuit
that leads to
your downfall

Ambition
tames the wildest beast
its jungle free
of thorns

Ambition
breeds the deepest hate
your future paved
— with scorn

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

He learned
to race
before
he walked
The world
too slow
his freedom
caught
To fans
who watched
and those
who loved
His spirit
soars
at speed
— above

(The New Room: December, 2024)

It lives
in the margins
betwixt and between

Visible
yet fleeting
a light once unseen

When reaching
to touch
its magic forestalls

Lost to that
moment
— posterity calls

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

You can only hope
that death provides
what’s sorely lacking
what life denies

You can only hope
that death will bring
the end of Winter
— unending Spring

(The New Room: December, 2024)

There are truths in disguise
but only one truth

Between Heaven and Hell
— time hides the difference

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

The story of revolution
the glory of Che
The fury of wander
a doctor’s foray

Silver spoon of his birth
the high noon of choice
A tune peasants cling to
that force in his voice

Daring insurrection
then falling from grace
Each stalling acceptance
a rebel’s embrace

His legend in khaki
a friend to the weak
Unbending in spirit
— both joyous and bleak

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Winning the
war

Winning the
peace

Divided by
victory

Joined in
— defeat

(The New Room: December, 2024)

Did you go
to the gym
the Poet asked

Or just write
weakened
the verse untasked

The vowels and
consonants
stay unflexed

With words
atrophic
— their muscles vexed

(The New Room: December, 2024)

Your voice
becomes a shadow
breathless
aft the fall

Whose words
deform in Satan’s grace
speechless
— yet they call

(Dreamsleep: 12-19-2024)

I stray
on purpose
my will
redeemed

When left
of center
to swim
upstream

Against
the grain
my future
hides

On roads
less traveled
past times
— divide

(The New Room: December, 2024)

The ending
hard
The ending
mean
Your future
soiled
But memory
clean

Your back bent
over
Your steps
misplaced
Your speech
a murmur
But one
last ace ...

A Robin
sits
Upon your
arm
And sings
of times
Forgotten
charm

And takes
your last
Begotten
breath
Upon its
wings
To fates
— regret

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Fearing
that day
when the
music stops
My steps
remeasure
my soul
takes stock

Rueing
that moment
when time
is gone
My tea
resweetens
all words
— in song

(The New Room: December, 2024)

From darkness rose
the light of time
Reborn each day
from Eastern climes

In shadows wake
our future’s swim
Cross lakes of fire
toward Adam’s hymn

Repeat, repeat
new endings start
Redemption flames
with nature’s spark

As echoes answer
in voices new
****** mornings
— bid night adieu

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

I swore
over and over
and
over and over
Forever
to love her
no matter
the whim

But time
after time
as each siren
would call  
I rambled
and left her
my nose
— in the wind

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Good taste
— wears no brand

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Necessary
but not
sufficient
Stated
but
unheard
Always wrong
but never
in doubt
Sworn
but forever
— *****

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Etching my name immortal
the words when left my pen
Take on a new perspective
beyond both me and them

Etching all time eternal
the future is renamed
Calling forth beyond true north
— my destiny reclaimed

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Tending anger’s
raging garden
seeds lie
burnt and dire

Each fiery breath
a vine ensnares
with thorns
of ****** ire

Tending anger’s
furrowed hate
with vehement
acclaim

A tirade lost
within the rows
of dark
— unending pain

(The New Room: December, 2024)

Hiding from
the day
with night
growing short
The light
to expose
what darkness
— aborts

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

When you subsidize
my excess
You underwrite
my greed
Each payment made
my hunger craves
And gluttoned passion
— needs

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Competition ...
what keeps us alive
Sharpening our edges
fueling our drive

Setting new benchmarks
pushing the bar
Forever defining
— just who we are

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Are you the CEO
of your passion
the chief of your desires

Are you the captain
of your intention
the master of what inspires

Are you the owner
of your discovery
the clearing in the fog

Are you the light
of your reflection
— a servant before God

(The New Room: December, 2024)

As hedonists dally
to never explain
The greatest pleasure
— the absence of pain

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Like squeezing and gripping
a handful of sand
Your love dropped through
the crevices unrhymed

Defining our feelings
with each orphaned word
Lost in the random
—abandon of time

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Kneeling
in a confessional
of words
forgiveness wouldn’t come
Absolution
undefined
where beats
— the silent drum

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Is the Oracle wise
the Buddha fat
or the Great
Niagara wet
Description wanes
where titan’s reign
as words are left
to falter
And blow upwind
against the grain
in messages
— sublime

(The New Room: December, 2024)

Pushing hard
against the words
the order
disarrayed
The ultimate guest
the consummate stranger
so close
— so far away

(The New Room: December, 2024)

Paying hard
the money short
pockets empty
time aborts
A pound of flesh
bills remain
invoice closing
—  sealed with pain

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Hiding in
a shadow

The light
forever near

My world is
pothole bound

Restraining
hope with fear

Dirt roads
of my memory

Training wheels
unsure

Rolling forward
falling back

Beyond
— the lion’s roar

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

If the past’s
not alive
The future
is dead

With memory
starving
Hope’s promise
unfed

What yesterday
gives us
Tomorrow
awaits

All hope
in the transfer
Of destiny’s
— fate

(The New Room: November, 2024)

Writing
with my head
but
not my heart

My spirit
an orphan
alone
— and apart

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Left
with nothing
but heartache
— we run from the pain

Left
with nothing
but promises
— the words in refrain

Left
with nothing
but yesterday
— tomorrow a lie

Left
with nothing
but memories
— a final goodbye

(The New Room: November, 2024)

Time ...
the enigmatic
trap
we’re all caught within

(The New Room: November, 2024)

My slanguage
keeps the fire hot
my feet against the coals

My slanguage
what the critics hate
new venom to extol

My slanguage
whether read or sung
its message still the same

My slanguage
seeding my rebirth
— lost within the rain

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Painfully beautiful ...
oxymoronic
The quiet so loud
— all parameters die

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Writing
is but
an escape
for the soul

Freeing
our passions
making
— us whole

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

He stood by
my cradle
And followed
my hearse
Unlocking
two portals
Both blessing
— and curse

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Today
I decided
not to rhyme

The words
in volleys
poorly formed

Predicates
outcast
covers smashed

Their accents
bouncing
meanings lost

Today
I decided
not to rhyme

Appeasing
some
beyond the fence

Connections
broken
  phrases served

Playing tennis
without
— a net

(The New Room: November, 2024)

Reaching into the
public consciousness
the words were given free

Blowing fresh holes
through blind consensus
nothing there to see

Reaching into
the common anthem
selling out for fate

Lost in the current
of tomorrow’s maelstrom
— passing heaven’s gate

(The New Room: November, 2024)

We couldn’t survive
each to the other
We couldn’t let go
to live
We couldn’t give
without retaking
We couldn’t express
what we felt
We couldn’t stay quiet
when being together
We couldn’t come back
from the past
We couldn’t forgive
what time had rescinded
We couldn’t remember
— to forget

(Woodstock: Summer, 1969)

He wandered to the rim
looking over and down
Lost in a memory
his fear as a shroud
As voices from faces
that he never saw
Called out from the darkness
— with time overdrawn

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Innocence a foreigner
if beautiful or dark
No one who can lead the way
— has purity of heart

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Killing shared values
our lives on death row
Kinship aborted
— the world soon to blow

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)