Knowledge
Charisma
And
Violence ...
The
Triumvirate
Of
*******

(Dreamsleep: October, 2023)

A riot
of illusions
a festival
on hold

The jester caught
laughing
at what’s yet
been told

Saint George
his new dragon
a pet
on a leash

The parade
stops and watches
as minstrels
beseech

Cheery O’
Cherry O’
the knave said
to the Queen

As he stole  
back the memory
of all that’s
unseen

While the clock
in the tower
struck one
final time

And the square
clouded over
with darkness
— unrhymed

(Dreamsleep: September,2024)

Etta was predicting
Stormy Weather
As Ray freed his
Seven Spanish Angels
Roy asked are you still
Running Scared
But Ella was smiling and
Watching Over Me
Peggy gave me that look asking
Is That All There Is
But Kris stepped in to
Help Me Make It Through The Night
***** reminding us all
How Time Slips Away
As Hank made his entrance
That Lonesome Whistle Blowing
Bobby was still bleeding from
Mack The Knife
As Frank flew in on
A Summer Wind
Aretha was breaking
That Chain Of Fools
While BB cried out
The Thrill Is Gone
Smoky was drowning in
The Tears Of A Clown
And Sam kept promising
A Change Is Gonna Come
As the Fat Man looked down
from Blueberry Hill
Elvis chased the
Hound Dog out the back door
But Brenda had our
Emotions running high
When Satchmo assured us  
—It’s A Wonderful World

(Dreamsleep: October, 2023)

Immortality
a panacea
if not for the cost
— mortality

(Dreamsleep: May, 2025)

Your form is strong,
but your content is weak

Desire flowing,
experience meek

Trying to fake it
with meter and rhyme

Words never ripen
—green apples in time

(Dream Sleep: March, 2021)

Performance art
embracing the artist
The magic of youth
alive on the stage
Time takes direction
from a glorious past
The memories an encore
— forever to stay

(Dreamsleep: September, 2024)

And so it goes
from cradle to grave
From baby’s wail
to funeral laid

We reason, ponder,
dissent, and cry
As time repeats
and years go by

Sages offer
their grand excuse
In what’s left wanting
to feed the muse

But one thing’s certain
to never change
Death recycles
— the same old game

(The New Room: May, 2024)

Emoted investment
dividends high
Buying then selling
as spirit contrives

Unlimited resource
consciousness fares
In debits and credits
— whose riches ensnare

(Dreamsleep: October, 2024)

Seven dark prodigals approached in the night,
saying: “One has escaped and
journeyed into the light”

Seven dark prodigals with shadows now gone,
longed for he who had left them
—for he who was strong

Seven dark prodigals wandered the dark,
no safety in numbers,
in search of their heart

“We must look till he’s found,” I heard two of them
say,
seven sins unforgiven
—the eighth gone astray

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)

It’s not the steps that you take
— but the footprints you leave

(Ithan Pennsylvania: January, 2024)

Life,
but thread and thimble
—struggling with the hem

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

“Nip and tuck” her surgeon says,
crow’s feet on the run

Tighter skin on feathered whims,
botox zero-sum

An ageless wonder creaks inside,
bones preserve the tale

And when she smiles her lips on fire
—wanton to regale

(The New Room: December, 2021)

Happiness
you can’t explain
Forever joyous
— hope’s refrain

(The New Room: February, 2025)

Alone
in my boyhood
the adult awaits
impatient indulgence
the year growing late

The woods
and the forest
refuse to let go
my spirit within them
the man to forego

Parents
and teachers
left counting the days
as wonder and whimsy
hold on and delay

The moment
I falter
the day that I fall
that boy left to wander
— where time never calls

(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)

Stars light
the beckoning dawn
Shepherds sleep
the wolves have gone
Shadows weave
the morning wind
Eyes reopen
—deep within

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Earbuds in and phone in hand,
millennial’s converse

Language distant, eyes unshared,
their lives on hold—obverse

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Diminished
but ennobled,
the soldier came home
his two limbs
traded for the
sanctuary
of a deeper peace

Broken
in completeness,
his braces held proud
each battle
medaled
in the memory
—of his finest hour

(The New Room: November, 2021)

Outrunning his destiny,
overtaking his fate
Reprieving tomorrow
—all time to abate

(Dreamsleep: August, 2021)

Without a reader
the poem is dead,
stillborn and lifeless
—buried unread

(Dreamsleep: March, 2022)

Torn from the moment,
each page sorely ragged
whose ink has long faded
but memory bound

The story is telling,
its magic eternal
inside it awaits us
—a treasure unfound

(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)

Nothing
can be its own explanation

Nothing
can leave itself

Nothing
can give dimension to time

Nothing
unsaid is spelt

Nothing
is nothing till something becomes

Nothing
a word unatoned

Nothing
that last page of unwritten rhyme

Nothing
—a temptress unknown

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

In the beginning God cried…
He cried for His fallen Angel
and He cried for His Son
His tears forming the great rivers and oceans
His sighs the vast deserts
His pain the tall mountains
His light from the darkness
His love the first garden upon which we sinned
—in the beginning God cried

(Ronald McDonald House: December, 2021)

A teardrop of joy
a teardrop of sorrow
Different in substance
different in kind
Flowing endemic
the scientist’s baffled
Their chemical compounds
— distinct and profound

(Rosemont College: June, 2024)

Has the future made a profit
by selling out your dreams

Marking up expectations,
closing out self esteem

Interest bearing hopes uncashed,
wishes in arrears

Creditors loom, the past foreclosed
—tomorrow paid in tears

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

A Wolf Waits

Early one morning
reason escaped
And prescience went with it
unlocking the gate
Lights in the asylum
flicker and fade
The inmates grow restless
a deepening shade
Evening brought darkness
no stars in the sky
But nobody wondered
no questioning why
The moon simply vanished
a wolf waits to howl
All order disorder
—with thought disavowed

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)


Spinning The Cylinder

When does intelligence
turn on its host
Killing the patron
leaving a ghost

Russian roulette
in a game zero sum
Perception reloading
—acuity’s gun

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)


Quantum Leap

Life beyond numbers
images reign
Killing all reference
lost in refrain
Gaming the theory
zeroing out
Counting symphonic
—Angels about

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

A stitching of parables,
a weaving of psalms

Whether ancient or modern,
the truth plaited long

The story we tell,
with one pattern beset

A patchwork of tailors
—whose needles profess

(Villanova Pennsylvania, December, 2019)

Fictitious dreaming
those voices call
Imagined bliss
where ghosts enthrall

Enigma fashioned
bespoke to fit
Fantasia moments
—belief remits

(Dreamsleep: August, 2022)

A Poet who writes his name in ink
and screams his name in blood
Tomorrow will hear what his wounds make clear
—to die in glory of

(Dreamsleep: March, 2022)

Verse is but a vehicle
to where my words are bound

The cargo much more precious
than structure that surrounds

The driving force empowered,
hands firm upon the wheel

The road to ever open up
—with all I say and feel

(St. David’s Pennsylvania: March, 2021)

The greatest truths
should stay unnamed
to discover
for oneself
No footnotes
praising earlier thoughts …
the thirsty
to the well  
Virtue gifted
from times long past
in hidden moments
of bliss
Remaining ******
as yet unloved
for each new mind
—to kiss

(Dreamsleep: September, 2023)

Dare to make
it rhyme

Fight for
every sound

Change with
every breath

Leave the world
—profound

(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)

Swords belong
to those who wield them
Peace a dream
to those still sleeping
Wisdom lost
to visions promise
Blood the signature
—on heaven’s gate

(Dreamsleep: August, 2022)

Everyone else has gotten off,
how long am I to stay?

The train unstationed, tender gone,
its engine writhed in pain

Did I miss my stop on the journey down?
“an express” the porter screamed

All light afire, ticket burnt
—satanic nightmare dreamed

(Drexel University: February, 2020)

What I meant,
how I said it

The meaning sacred
—the words servile

(Dreamsleep: March, 2021)

“Only those things not made less by division
—are to be inherited”

(The New Room: February, 2021)

Millions of words
are brought to a boil
But only the few
—can rise with the truth

(Dreamsleep: June, 2022)

One opinion that matters,
its judgment vouchsafe  

Where mountains have melted,
new rivers await

The merit for others,
but truth undenied

Beyond feeling and vision
—exists only I

(The New Room: March, 2021)

If not a Poet
what would I be
A soldier, a sailor
a fading marquee

If not a Poet
whose soul would I claim
a saint’s or a sinners
to praise or defame

If not a Poet
which path would I choose
the known or untraveled
which one did Frost use

If not a Poet
what hills would I climb
what bells could I ring
— in place of the rhyme

(Dreamsleep: January, 2025)

The Poet of Las Vegas Boulevard
steals emotion from the night

Holding a vigil in the darkness
waiting for the light

The Poet of Las Vegas Boulevard
among the screams and homeless cries

Making rhyme of what reason has abandoned
—marking time inside the shadow of lies

(Las Vegas Boulevard: January 24, 2016)