Damning two lies
with only one truth
Deception remixes
like gin and vermouth

Jumping from one
as the other got hot
Port in the storm
where perdition is fraught    

Grace in short order
with blessings denied
Thomas redoubting
all faith circumscribed  

Prevarication
twin sister of pain
The Word caught between them
—trapped to remain

(The New Room: July, 2023)

If Sartre was right
and
“Hell Is—Other People”
then
Isolation holds the key
that
opens perception’s door

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

Dead Calm

Without friction
there is no motion
Without motion
— creation stops

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Abeyance

My pen is searching
for its guitar case
a place to sleep
when the writing’s done

To rest in the dark  
between flowing moments
of what might be coming
— and old verses sung

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Nowhere To Hide

The haunting of our memories
never to escape
No continent wide nor ocean deep
— will shield us from their ****

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Falling Into Silence

For years
I’ve had an old man’s body
Today
an old man’s mind

The past
a memory ever haunting
Tomorrow looming
— in decline

(Listening To Paul Simon: May, 2024)


Shadow Dancing

Making everyday life poetic
doggedness abounds
Separating wheat from chaff
— harder than it sounds

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Again New Orleans

Waking up from a dream
inside another dream
inside another dream
inside another …

(Listening to Wynton Marsalis: May, 2024)

A hunter
not skinner  
with quarry
so vast
Whose path
through the forest
is first
—never last

(Garrett Hill Pennsylvania: January, 2021)

Victory is a song unwritten,
whose words beget the score

With truth in play, all time relayed,
past battles, future wars

Yesterday winless, tomorrow tied,
the moment zero sum

The hour prescient, each second dear
—glory still unsung

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2019)

Writing
is but
an escape
for the soul

Freeing
our passions
making
— us whole

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

The backside
of tomorrow
The frontside
of today
Every look
retelling
Of what the past
betrays

Caught within
the doldrums
All time fades
in the mist
Until that day
that ends itself
And nothing more
— exists

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)

My verse is like
a bespoke set of clothes,
fit the thing that counts

Each article worn,
new memories born,
to tighten or let out

My head to my toes,
its covering goes,
whose message spoken clear

To tailor new moments,
each stitch a new thread
—bench made to endear

(The New Room: April, 2021)

Within the depths of all I fear,
a voice holds me at bay

And clears a path, my soul to roam,
to stumble on its way

The darkness lures, a light unshone,
new words to keep me strong

As legend steals what fact denies
—beyond all right or wrong

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2019)

The minute I say
what it means to me
It will never mean
something different to you

Words are like highways
they begin and they end
You can get on and get off
where you choose

If I tell you the mile marker
I travel the most
You may miss one
I still haven’t seen

If I break it apart
and then spell it all out
There’s no mileage left
— to wander and dream

(Dreamsleep: February, 2025)

I stumbled through each morning,
it was all about today
Dissolute and scorning,
of all that passed away
Wandering and faint of heart,
old promises unsworn
Living once then living twice
—the moment was reborn

(Dreamsleep: June, 2021)

Poetic angst,
Jimmy Dean

Poetic angst,
Brando screams

“Stella, Stella,”
the spirits call

“Live Fast, Die Young”
—the fates befall

(Dreamsleep: August, 2022)

I hate the ‘Body
Politic’

Whose wave blasphemes
and grows

I battle to swim against
its tide

Or be abandoned in its
flow

I hate the way it stunts
my voice

‘Old Dominions’ chosen
side

I hate the fact—it’s hate
I feel

With the truth a captive
lie

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2016)
Inspired By My Friend & Poet Neal Hall

You call it a particle
He calls it a wave
They call it energy
—I call it light

You’re locked in physics
He’s locked in quantum
They’re trapped in theory
—blocking all sight

Let go the dissection
Let go the mechanics
Let go the empirics
—your eyes then to see

Reach out for the music
Reach out for what’s timeless
Reach out with your spirit
—set yourself free

(Villanova University Monastery: June, 2019)

Writing the final chapter…
the bells in the tower ring for me
Once for each phrase unwritten
twice for each grievance atoned

—as—

“Schoolchildren rise
pulling back the covers on the flowering meadow
Singing my words
blessing the fields as they run

“Memory half gone
released into the cradle of times rebirth
Taking what I gave
and leaving what I could not forgive

“The reasons, the seasons
melding together, flashing lost images
Redeeming their promise
christening new moments forever endowed

“Yesterday and tomorrow
I am free of their deception
My last words to stay hidden
—in the laughter of a child”

(The New Room: June, 2022)

You look at me
and all feeling is absent
without understanding
or care

Calling me brother
remaining a stranger
defined by the
distance we share

Caught in the fury
of loves abandon
You wander inclement
storm raging inside

A ghost in the mirror
a twin of reflection
Two eyes that stare coldly
— across the divide

(Dreamsleep: February, 2025)

Experience is fleeting
—memories are forever

(Dreamsleep: April, 2023)

The road taken,
a path unwalked,
direction unto fate

A choice is made,
the debt unpaid
—redemption coming late

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)

I lost my shadow
in the hills of pain
and wandered in darkness
chasing in vain

I lost my shadow
the sun took flight
morning left waiting
adrift in the night

I lost my shadow
wolves distant howl
tracking my torment
whose grief I prowl

I lost my shadow
and then my name
connection severed
—myself to blame

(The New Room: September, 2022)

Hearing the word
speaking the word

Often quite different
—often the same

(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)

Breathing in
the smell of your memory

My eyes gently close
—the fantasy real

(Dreamsleep: June, 2021)

To stand in
Your shadow
its welcoming rim
Surrounding
my calling
to lead me within
Your aura
completes me
and lights up my way
To follow
undaunted
—Your love on display

(1st Book Of Prayers: April, 2024)

I don’t limit who reads my verse,
only who I answer

Each word thick-skinned and armor-clad
all questions zero-sum

(To Nelson Riddle & Frank Sinatra: March, 2021)

Can nothing extend
beyond something…

Can never be
possibly where…

Can dreamers awaken
the insomniacs sleep…

Can no place
ever be there…

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

Psychopath
Sociopath
Neuropath’s
remind

Every ‘path’
an open route
locked inside
our minds

Empathy
Antipathy
Pathological
liars

Waiting there
to mark the way
as circumstance
— requires

(The New Room: March, 2024)

Senses untamed,
spaces to reign

Bodies that die,
spirits to fly

Length or by width,
time is a myth

Dimension aground,
essence refound

Eyes looking forward,
eyes looking back

Eyes looking inward,
soul reattached

All that was spoken,
providence sings

Grand sublimation
—last bell to ring

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Looking back
speed is warped
looking forward
it slows
Each memory
a racehorse
that goes
and it goes

Intuition
the truant
in what it
will bring
When time
is reversed
and the Jester
— is King

(The New Room: June, 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)

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)

Wandering in the desert
profanity infused me
Each word like a scorpion
the curses on fire

The sand an abrasive
the cactus a warning
The sting of my words
—killing prophet and liar

(Dreamsleep: October, 2022)

Reason
without evidence
Truth
without form

Burning
the ladder
Immune
from the scorn

Nuance
to sleepwalk
As reality
dreams

Proof
in the eye
Galileo
redeemed

(Dreamsleep: February, 2023)

Better to slip through
than run over

Better to finesse
than to force

Better to persuade
than to dictate

Discretion
—all meaning discoursed

(Dreamsleep: September, 2019)

Auditioning for myself
the lights went down
the sound amped up
my head turned round

Auditioning for myself
the handbill flew
into the seats
the chosen few

Auditioning for myself
last line unread
the words reborn
inside my head

Auditioning for myself
I begged my leave
the stage door open
—a last reprieve

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2020)

Denying the soul…
all words are in vain
a verbal inherence
—spirit proclaims

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)