Own that space
  you walk within

Show your face
  the same again

The facts will change
  the weather turn

But only deep
  within you’ll learn

To own that space
  you walk within

All fear delinquent
  —the renter’s sin!

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2015)

You can live
  in the past

Or pine
  for the future

But only
  in the present

Will you triumph
  or die

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2013)

The tide of redemption,
—catches all in its wake

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)

I believe I know,
—do you ?

(Chicago Illinois: July, 1977)

It was Hemingway
  early

And Dickinson
   late

Those early
  exposures

The trail of
  my wake

No bar left
  unvisited

Or brawl left
  unfought

No school that could
   answer

Dialectic
  corrupt

Now this corner
  I sit in

Both welcomes
  and warms

And the thoughts
  it retriggers

No movement
  just form

I once had
  looked over

What I now look
  within

From this chair
  that I captain

Where in virtue
  —I sin

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Oh, to draft just one
Oh, to say the words
Oh, to remake time
Oh, to once be heard
Oh, to write for you
Oh, to joyous be
Oh, to sing the meaning
Oh, to be set free

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Having fun with the words,
  the party lasted till dawn

The sun now a blanket
  covered verses to warm

Having fun with the words
  all new phrases to sleep

Resting inside my heart
—until daylight’s retreat

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

I could package it different,
  I could present it complex,
  —I could try to impress and deceive

But the message eternal,
  and the one truly spoken,
  —needs the simplest of words to conceive

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)

Liberals with a credit card,
Debts they’ll never pay
Mortgaging our future,
The present now ‘in play’

Conservatives with a checkbook,
The balance no concern
Hope now bouncing downward
  —when will we ever learn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)

Dreams carry me across
  a mysterious land

Where the voice of my fathers
  so gently commands

It echoes quite softly
  in words only sung

A joyous recital,
  rewoven and spun

I never can stay there,
  I’ve begged till I weep

And with barely a whisper,
  I’m roused from my sleep

But when darkness befalls
  on my world once again

A new dream will come calling
   —to guide me within

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2016)

Never let intelligence
Get in the way of good judgment
Never let excuses
Inside your dreams
Never let the refusals
Cancel out the invitations
Never let tomorrow
—destroy today

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)

A briefcase full of sorrow…
   the hiding place of tears

One trade to end all others
   excuse to lie and steal

The papers hide the story
  all documents in vain

As grief belies the glory
  —of a life that deals in pain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2019)

Not free, not wise, not kind, not loved,
  and tethered to the past

Unwilling to admit the truth,
  he met his match at last

His Muse had warned time and again,
  a reckoning was near

His eyes to close, his voice to mute,
  beyond his greatest fear

Unsung, unwanted, lost, alone,
  his nights became his days

His introduction to regret,
  the price all sinners pay

If just one chance to then go back,
  and take that other road

The dark would pass, the light return,
  and end his life below

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

Hiding inside the written page,
  reality slipped away

Buried inside a meaning deep,
  its wolves were kept at bay

With feelings ablaze, all answers are torched
  a bonfire at the gate

New questions enshrined, false promises burned
  with ash to mark the way


(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)

Looming large in my absence,
  the silence screamed out my name

Present in my rejection
—refusing to play the game

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2014)

Dreamers search incessant,
  hearts cry out undoled

Wishes only whisper,
—love to make them whole

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)

Heaven leaks the truth
  to writers who thirst

The drip of each word,
  filling line after line

All meaning distills,
  when the words press together

The pages a vineyard
  —as water becomes wine

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)

Career Politician
   —what could be more profane

  Mandated Term Limits
  —forever changing the game

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

The leaves have fallen,
  the birds did sing

Memory lingers,
  tomorrow brings

A promise spoken,
  a solemn vow

The present honored,
—all faith avowed

The years enlighten,
  as age sets in

While youth remembered,
   still burns within

The gates now beckon,
  their pearl’s endear

My heart unburdened,
—the time is near

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

If you can take your own
  breath away

   —and then the breath of others

You will live in a world of
  magic and dreams

  —with the shortest pathway home

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

No one reads it,
  more reason to write it

No one understands,
  or seems to care

No one reads it,
  the verse sits muted

Not to abandon,
—the future to share

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)