Sometimes …
there’s one poem
that opens your mind
And clears out
the cobwebs
that gather in kind
The words
defy entropy  
speaking as one
And pushing you
forward
— their mission is done

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)

Gather your false prophets
and sycophants
Bury your heads
in the deepest sand

Tell the same lies
as you sing to the choir
Slave to the mirror
—and sleight of hand

(Dreamsleep: May, 2023)

Does worry only exist
in our memory
Or is foresight
required to fret

Will a bear live in fear
of the hunter
Or ignore what
might happen unmet

When alarm bells go off
in the moment
Rejecting the
future and past

Is time at its essence
but present
All reference
— a rationalist caste

(The New Room: January, 2024)

The end of my life
brings newfound freedom
wrapping around me
like the wings of a dream

Lifting me off
and carrying me selfward
dropping me prescient
—to depths once unseen

(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)

Dawn of the city
sunset of humanity

Light a burning ash
—darkness closing in

(The New Room: September, 2022)

I have zero regard
for structure and form
if the words as written work
A poetic outlaw
to ruled acceptance
in search of what may lurk
Critics and enemies
seed the cloud
that overflows with spite
To rain upon  
my chosen path
— of radical delight

(Bryn Mawr College: January, 2024)

Closer to words
than I am to people

Meaning,
in place of love

Heart felt recital,
truant revival

In script
—to rise above

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2019)

Bury a prophecy
— resurrection assured

(The New Room: April, 2025)

Like water…
fear seeks its own level
Rich or poor
it wades through our consciousness
Driving us inward
toward sirens of darkness
Shrilling the moment
—with lyres of doubt

(Hereford Inlet: December, 2021)

Faith,
Reasons Achille’s Heel
Dialectic’s
Lord And Master
Philosophy’s Warden
Academic Invader
Time Imploder
Existing Divine

(Dreamsleep: December, 2021)

Poetic depiction
prosaic description
Vowels come in colors
the rest black and white

They call to us orphaned
they call to us nameless
Our pens but a lifeline
that save with each write

To romance the serpent
to anger the saint
Each word symptomatic
our feelings acquaint

A bard or a preacher
their weapons the same
Whose caliber loaded
—to praise or defame

(Radnor Pennsylvania: June, 2022)

Coming from nowhere
destined for anywhere
Each pathway a mantra
—whose footsteps define

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

Feel its fury
hear it roar
Avenging Angel
vengeance born

Apostatic
idols vain
Bear the sentence
its will proclaims

Chants of guilt
awaken sinners
From their dark
infected dreams

O’er the mountains
to the ocean
Heaven’s rage
—its verdict screams

(Dreamsleep: June, 2023)

Money for today
but not for tomorrow
Bees in the bonnet
cows in the barn

Poverty lessens
the weight of ambition
Our wishes and dreams
back burner to warm

Love for today
but not for tomorrow
Feelings with shelf lives
spoiled by date

The moment usurps
each hour an orphan
Whose bird in the hand
—neither early nor late

(Dreamsleep: June, 2022)

Through struggle
one can justify life
Losing the battle
enhances the view
Blood on the rails
all markings assured
Death as the prize
— recurring anew

(The New Room: June, 2025)

“You’ve got more past than future,”
she said without a smile

“The hours lost will not rewind,
your pendulum beguiled

“You’ve got more past than future,”
the hag said one last time

“Your legacy a broken spring
—whose clock no longer chimes”


(Valley Forge Memorial Bell Tower: March, 2021)

To my Grandchildren, those great and beyond,
whom I will never meet

Know that I love you and have seen you in the eyes of your parents, when they were very small

I’ve heard your voices in the trees when the wind blows softly,
calling my name as I walk

I’ve seen your arms reaching out to me in my dreams,
as you cry “Papa” and then drift away

Your spirit is mine, as my spirit is yours; and no lifetime
can keep us apart

I watch over you now and will watch over you then,
whenever the need is great

I’m that voice you hear when you think no one else listens,
and no one else understands

And the heart that feels what you will feel
—when no one else seems to care

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

“Why”
said the river,
refusing to run

“The mountain’s
on fire,
snow all but gone

“Beginning
or ending,
  truth is the same

“The start
in the finish
—loss in the gain”

(The New Room: November, 2021)

Apocalypse kindles    
relighting the fire
Malignant denominators
melt from above
Savior disdained
pontificate’s stain
Tomorrow endemic
— in nuclear love

(The New Room: March, 2024)

Keep the fire burning,
worshipping the ash
Changing paper into smoke
—time and mood recast

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)

“We live between
the beasts and the Angels”

On this topic
Augustine was right

Our intellects bear
what our impulses share

Separating the wrong
from the right

We live between
the Lord and the devil

Each claiming a stake
in our souls

As primates absolved
into humans evolved

Two halves
—of a now different whole

(St Davids Pennsylvania: June, 2019)

There’s no problem
with death
when it’s
tomorrow
One day from
today
as the calendar
turns
Time
stays an orphan
all moments
adopted
The end
yet beginning
its promise
— adjourned

(Dreamsleep: September, 2024)

A bevy of censures,
to hit and strike back

Each written reprisal
to ward off attack

A mother-son warning,
once truant come true

Her words now my weapons
—to **** and renew

(Beaupre: February, 2021)

Is time but a reference
to prey and confound

(while)

In memory eternal
—enlightenment found

(Dreamsleep: February, 2023)

As figures don't lie
but liars can figure
Right is still right
—and wrong is still wrong

(Ronald McDonald House: July, 2022)

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

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

You can’t embrace
the moment forever
whose verity
at essence ungrained

By definition
it must rename itself
once mentioned
decried and disclaimed

What came upon you
to die in place
where vacuums exit
in time and space

Regenerating
from life’s cocoon
and starting over
—Amayasvan moon

(The New Room: December, 2023)

Death ever faithful
in spite of the glee
Holding our place
in wanton reprieve

We ever the cuckold
of life’s dark affairs
As quiet it waits
— a loyal au pair

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)

Art,
the poison with which
the universe stings…
the artist dead

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)

I know it’s
written
I don’t know
why
The heavens
tremble
as poet’s  
cry

To stand
anointed
in love’s
review
And pose
one question
rephrased
— anew

(Dreamsleep: April, 2024)