Poetic trattoria  
a feast for the eyes
Visionary smorgasbord
of what — and then why

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

You can’t make a deal
with a Judas
As tenured
they govern on high

Like the British
who sought our indenture
With graft and self-interest
they lie

You can’t play the game
any longer
When rules only favor
the few

Where freedom is held
as a hostage
And verity’s fairness
— askew

(The New Room: March, 2025)

We often reach the future
by sailing in the past

Our course in life a distant breeze
— that steps tomorrows mast

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Don’t tell
me
what I
already know

Don’t give
me
what I
already have

Don’t take
me
where I’ve
already been

Don’t play
me
what I’ve
already heard

Dissuading
moments
when left
unbound

Preempt
the silence
a devil’s
sound

But deep
inside
satanic
winds

A Savior
whispers
beyond
— the din

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Why are you
waiting
your house
is burning
Run while
you can
from the blaze
inside

What will
be left
in the morning
after
But naked
ashes
and tears
— uncried

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Shepherds
of echo  
sirens
that call
Masters
of legend
trapped
in the Fall

Moonlight
on ice fields
whispering
still
Voices
stay buried
destiny’s
will

Sunlight
awakens
mountains
that sigh
Hidden on
summits
new answers
there hide

But with
every Spring
a melting
ensues
Flowing
life’s message
recalled
— and renewed

(Memories Of Absaroka: May, 1997)

The eggs had been colored
and scattered about
The baskets were hidden
the children to shout…
“Was he here Mom, was he here”
they yell from upstairs
“Come down and find out”
she says—nary a care
Their little feet rush
taking two steps at once
Wide eyes dart all over
playing their hunch
Living and dining rooms
they tear with a fever
No corner is safe
from the incursion of either
“I found it, I found it"
the bigger one said
The smaller one saddened
their heart filled with dread
“The Bunny forgot
there's no candy this year”
From across the big room
the first start of a tear
“The Bunny never forgets”
their mother cried out
"You have to look harder
both inside and out”
As the front door was opened
the little one chimed ...
“Mom, he didn’t forget
— it was here all the time”

(To My Grandchildren: Easter 2017)

Upon reaching the top
I found a new bottom
Polarity lies
with the truth ill begotten
Direction a ruse
in misguided fruition
As searchers take flight
— in their new destitution

(The New Room: January, 2025)

When I was
a young man
I wrote as
a young man

Needing music
and art
to deal
with the times

But now
as an old man
my heart
chases neither

While dwelling
inside
what this moment
— has found

(The New Room: April, 2025)

You remind me
of a person
I’ve never
met

Of an
idea
that I’ve
never had

Of a
feeling
never mine
to feel

In a
moment
forever
— lost to time

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Bury a prophecy
— resurrection assured

(The New Room: April, 2025)

‘Normalcy’
has its
depression
built in

Mundane
and ill formed
life hiding
from sin

Each day
like the former
unseasoned
and bland

With time
in the freezer
hope frozen
— and canned

(The New Room: April, 2025)

Neuroscience
takes a world class meal
grinds it into bits
and tries to convince us
— its taste has improved

(Villanova University: April, 2025)

When artists
grow reflective
their impact
is stalled

All direction
is hijacked
momentum
recalled

Looking back
through their psyche
a tunneler’s
view

As horizon’s
lie waiting
with visions
— anew

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Once upon a time
the old songs were new
On prairies unplanted
invaders were few

Where rivers rolled onward
no ferries or towns
All riverboat minstrels
new ages impound

The time of the season
unmeasured refrain
And cursed belladonna
tomorrow to reign

As butterfly’s wander
o’er questions unasked
A dark shrouded answer
—  the future unmasks

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Learn to Fandango
castanet in your hand
Tambourine calling
its bells to command

Dance every Tango
before it’s too late
Death in the offing
— the wolf at the gate

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Safe place for the meaning — in couplets of rhyme
the words taking shelter in moments sublime

Their message unfurling — new harbor in sight
the tempest becalming in lines of delight


(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Aperta

All of my life
the window stayed open
The good and the bad
— beginning to end

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)


Verbal Teflon

If the message
doesn’t stick
— the words are in vain

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Courage travels ...
where reason will not go

Wisdom teaches ...
what intellect cannot show

Prescience offers ...
what knowledge can’t explain

Love transient ...
infatuation to remain


(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Verbal
irrigation
streams
that rush and flow
Tributaries
far and wide
messages
in tow

Watering
the wasteland
Arid lulls
retreat
Freeing what
the silence hides
and reticence
— defeats

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Can a dreamer
be bigger
than the dream itself
a source of hope and pride

Can believers
be stronger
than love or hate
when circumstance denies

Can pilgrims
make choices
to keep the faith
when stranded in the wild

Can orphans
adopted
embrace a name
— that births tomorrow’s child

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Route 66

The death of the road
— the birth of a dream

(The New Room: April, 2025)


Live More

If you’re light
on experience
your writing will suffer

Like clay
to the sculptor
— or drummer to the band

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Old enough
to be your
Grandfather

Young enough
to be your
Friend

Wise enough
to see your
Greatness

Where time
and tide
— depend

(University City: April, 2025)

Let’s cut right through
the bombast ...
your camouflage of words
And redefine
the essence ...
of what you’ve never learned
Your double-talk
pontificates ...
to lure and to distract
Whose lies deride
wherein you hide ...
from what the truth exacts

(The New Room: February, 2025)

Betrothed
to the moment
Estranged from
the future
Present
to marry
All time
— an affaire

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Tempests of
inclemency
Cyclones filled
with pain
Tornadoes come
and go at will
With nothing
to remain

Caught inside
their whirlwind
Whose spin to wreak
and hurl
A demon vortex
roaming wild
Destruction
— to unfurl

(The New Room: April, 2025)

Strutting
in place
Message
defaced
Words left
to spew
Bombast
in view
Worshipping
mirrors
Begging
for fame
Image
debasing
Vanity’s
— claim

(The New Room: March, 2025)

Science ...
the bounty hunter of poetic wisdom

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Caught at
a crossroad
duality
reigns
Closing
you off
or opening
lanes
That choice
staring back
in the distance
provides
A new
destination
or a place
— you can hide

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Try to define
consciousness
you haven’t
the tools

Try to define
instinct
the same kind
of fool

Try to define
reason
misusing
the words

Try to define
wonder
unseen
and unheard

Try to define
sleep
when lost
in a dream

Try to define
presence
with space
— unforeseen

(Rosemont College: March, 2025)

Your words
they fall silent
but your life
is a poem

Each motion
and gesture
by Heaven
are known

You rhyme
every smile
your eyes
metered guides

To love
written couplets
of joy
— from inside

(To Kathryn: March, 2025)

Saying
something witty
while having nothing
to say

Is like
spitting in the wind
to stay out
— of the spray

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Science
never answers
the primary
questions
it ponders
in circles
deck chairs
rearranged
Reciprocal
theorems
of self
aggrandizement
indentured
to kingdoms
where dilettantes
reign

Why
is there love
why
is there war
why
are we human
why
do we grieve
Why
do we question
why
is there joy
why
are there feelings
that
foster belief

Is
consciousness
timeless
do thoughts ever die
is prescience
a quotient
does truth
ever lie
Is looking
for answers
outside the true
realm
the act that
betrays us
and damns us
— to hell

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Man often kills  
that thing he loves
Dying inside it
— when push comes to shove

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Seductive
to many
Accepted
by few

Its magnet
attracts
What closeness
eschews

A force
drawing nearer
What time
disarrays

Whose moment
lives on
As years
— slip away  

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Appearance
reality
their differences
hide
Within the
perception
that judgment
abides

If once
crossing over
there’s no
going back
The tradeoff
complete
their identity
— hacked

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Listen for the rumble
hear it roar
Retribution’s coming
from distant fjords

Your lack of judgment
and crass disdain
Will mark the sentence
its will proclaims

Feel the vibration
wake the hopeless
From their sleep
impassioned dreams

From the forest
to the ocean
Nature’s rage
— its verdict screams

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

If I give you
today
Will you give up
tomorrow

If I ask
you to wander
Can direction
be saved

If I say
that I love you
Will the words
meld the seasons

If I surrender
this moment
Can forever
— be gone

(The New Room: March, 2025)

Gunpowder
was to ‘Little Boy’
as a whisper
to a shout

Forever changed
the world remains
enslaved
— unto its rout

(The New Room: February, 2025)

Painting with words
speaking in colors
Palette of voices
— rainbow Divine

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

The moon unquestioned
has no answers
Between light’s reflection
the coming dawn

One promise chosen
to fill the darkness
One promise chosen
to calm the storm

As planets rally
the moon abandoned
The time for reason
has come and gone

They spin their orbits
and claim reentry
New eyes upon them
new axis spawned

Rotating freely
in pinball madness
Colliding passions
of night’s retreat

A new moon laughing
the death of order
A new moon waiting
— as shadows sleep

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

The higher you rise
the thinner the air
The more that’s at risk
the less there’s to dare
As oxygen falters
your head becomes light
And looking above you
fear turns to delight
The sun is setting
far over the peak
The summit awaits
whose answers you seek
With twilight retreating
your flag in the rock
You enter the madness
— descending unlocks

(Memories Of Sagarmatha: April, 1981)

God can’t become
that greater
than he is
God can’t become
tomorrow
or today
God can’t become
now or then
when always
God but exists
pure reason
— faith relayed

(The First Book Of Prayers: March, 2025)

Affable people
are likeable fools
Divorced from the moment
their banter unspools

Affable people
in search of a creed
Amusing examples
— of folly indeed

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Someday to write
the greatest poem
The most powerful words
forever to hear

Someday to write
the moment solemn
Where time will stop counting
— and prescience endears

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Often
words that
condemn
offer salvation

Their
juxtaposition
the blink
of an eye

What starts
to indict
turns into
redemption

The turn
of a phrase
their meaning
— belies

(The New Room: March, 2025)

Returning to my past
effects became causes
Finishes became starts
descended upon

The light there to spin
in spheres of infinity
Time the impostor
— beginning to end

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Reincarnation
eternity’s myth
You’re incarnated
only once
Though many transitions
are stamped with time’s pretense
As it was in the beginning
— it will be at the end

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

The most constant romance
the one with yourself
The most lasting friendship
the mirror defines
The most sacred promise
only yours to break
The most valued feelings
— your treasure inside


(The New Room: February, 2025)

Star-crossed by the years
a cuckhold of fate ...
I made love to you
in the copulate verses
of another time
— and another life

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)