Painfully beautiful ...
oxymoronic
The quiet so loud
— all parameters die

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Marry your will
unto your heart
all Heaven to bless
—and to guide

(Thanksgiving: 2023)

The riff smiled first,
as the raff smiled back

Each knowing the other,
the white from the black

“They’ll never accept us,”
they both would exclaim

“The ‘grays’ have the mantle,
defiled and profane”

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

The joy in the writing,
  all reading to construe

Spoken loud with one’s own breath
  —a vanity so true

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

All discovery
—but one grand paradox

(University Of Pennsylvania: May, 2020)

Yes, I’m a Poet,
but I refuse to be conscripted

I refuse to be a victim,
my words made out of stone

I refuse to bleed my heart out,
on a page of blank simpatico

I refuse to give you weakness,
knowing strength you have disowned

Yes, I’m a Poet,
but my sword is sharp and pointed

My shield is scarred and colored
with the blood of firebrands

My breath won’t plead while shouting,
every name a future conquest

My pen in hand, a weapon sure
—its ink the truth commands

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

Kingdom of Devils…
majesty screams,
poisoning the darkness
—virulent dreams

(Watching ‘Hemingway’ #3: April, 2021)

Far from where I’m supposed to be,
destined here to roam
Lost in waters still unmarked,
drifting and alone
On my way to nowhere fast,
distance calls my name
The wind a suitor, time undone
—future shores to claim

(The New Room: April, 2022)

Camels in the
brush
Memories in the
fire
Voices in the
wind
Panic in the
mire

Messages
conflict
Enemy
conspires
First shot
breaks the silence
Last shot
— lights the pyre

(The New Room: February, 2024)

Satan hides
within the shadows
Among your thoughts
his evil trolls
His masquerade
beyond the body
  Feigning silence
inside your soul

He takes up space
at God’s indulgence
The part he plays
unscripted low
In brimstone’s fire
he finds acceptance
From prodigals
his demon’s flow

The battle royal
lasts forever
Cast in darkness
waits his throne
To live in shame
while unrepentant
A trillion souls
—one more to go

(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)

I refuse to remember
what I can never forget

Words lost to my memory,
lined deep with regret

The faster I write,
the deeper I hide

A reckoning hovers
—forgiveness denied

(Dreamsleep: February, 2021)

Speak of the devil
he will appear
Trailing your thoughts
relining your fears

Tail of the dragon
wages of sin
Your ninth life in ashes
— fire within

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Eating everything
on the menu
Dylan asked for more

His hunger
reestablished
leftovers on the floor

A bite into
the future
yesterday a *****

A meal once paid
forever staid
— new rawness to procure


(The New Room: December, 2024)

If a poem doesn’t live up
to its title
The moment is reclaimed
by time

Its chance to anoint
when read disappoints
A bell  
—unable to chime

(The New Room: April, 2021)

Disguising his attack,
concealing his intent,
deceit comes calling
as a friend

Smiling to your face,
fangs in your back,
the wolf approaching
as a lamb

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2020)

Living in the zoo
hunting in the jungle
Dying in the space between
— buried in the past

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)

Storm laden vengeance
the Father has sent me

Each cloud a dark memory
the wind whipping through

Lightning bolts charging
the moment eternal

Excuses torrential
—in thunder’s adieu

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

Until you truly answer the question,
“Why do I write poetry”

You’ll never really wed the verse,
—your copyright estranged

(Dreamsleep: February, 2020)

Dying the death
of eternity’s struggle

(while)

Living the life
of the moments rebirth

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

How the world
should be
and isn’t
My choices
could
but don’t

What maybe
might
tomorrow voids
The spinning
vortex
—won’t

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Drowning
in the tides of thirst,
the dam opened wide
—for better or worse

(Dreamsleep: September, 2021)

I sleep with Saint Anselm,
but wake with Aquinas

My dreams to envision
what the morning will say

Creativity’s twins,
imagined then stated

Epiphany’s birth
—morphing night into day

(Dreamsleep: September, 2020)

I’m wed to my Poetry,
betrothed to the fire

Each word an incendiary,
burned to inspire

My voice the rekindling,
fueling the scream

The ashes my trousseau
—a smoldering dream

(Bryn Mawr College: January, 2020)

Running from
the voice of my conscience …
who’s deceiving who
Guilt ridden fear
embedded too dear
one and one still two
Trying to change
what’s inherent
my thoughts both twist and bend
With words falling deaf
death’s coronet
—judgment reprehends

(Dreamsleep: August, 2023)

Self awareness,
freedom’s chain

Mirrored judgment,
harbored pain

Descarte’s premise,
inside out

To know oneself
—eternal doubt


(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2019)

The right to remember,
the right to recall

The right to uncover,
the right to forestall

The right to nostalgia,
the right to look back

The right to remember
—the right to retrack

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

The part you transform
is that part you possess
The rest is pure folly
—petals scattered to the wind

(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)

Is there a direction to the universe,
  without the polar caps

The equator gone as space expands,
  looking forward—looking back

Does today become tomorrow,
  as tomorrow self destructs

Are the questions left by law unasked,
  when the answers run amuck

Can our thoughts be put in limbo,
  can our feelings lead the way

To what is known beyond the light,
  illusions cast away

And if just this moment matters,
  and the prophets all were right

The doorway back to who we are
   —in dreams we’ll dream tonight

(Haverford Pennsylvania: June, 2019)

Allowed to grow unfettered,
allowed to grow unnamed

Allowed to grow beyond myself,
connected once again

Swept up by the wind that brought me,
and free of nether mind

A light now shines within my soul
—that once had come to blind

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

The music trying to catch up with itself
as I sit here in the dark
—a figment of a lost dimension
—a remnant of some other duality
This place becoming a steppingstone
to what is now already gone
and the melody so close, so distant, and so far,
passing through itself to what might have been

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2020)

We can’t make
all the bad things
good
Just knowing
all that didn’t
should

We can’t wish
what stays real
away
Or lie
to keep the truth
at bay

Yesterday
today
tomorrow yield
The leavened
‘Word’
forever sealed

Ad infinitum
minus
one
Salvation’s
path
— is zero sum

(Sister Marcella: 8th Grade Religion Class, 1962)

Let me take you on a journey,
  to a place inside yourself

Not the body mind connection,
  but true consciousness itself

Before you walk a darkened space,
  a light must first go on

Not tasked with anything other than,
  an awareness set upon

Your eyes look out, true vision in,
  the stuff of what you’re made

Before the questions were unleashed,
  one answer left unblamed

So close your eyes and close your mind,
   and set your spirit free

The path aglow from whence you came
   —that leads you back to thee

(Dreamsleep: June, 2019)

His passion undefeated,
his record 10-0

All shutouts in the making
to vanquish every foe

The stadium electric
the crowd in fever pitch

Expectations through the roof
as hope has been enriched

The pressure feeds the fury
like diamonds still to mine

Leaving it all on the field
—glory to define

(The New Room: October, 2022)

Leonard Cohen…
an unfinished poem
blowing in the wind
forever reminding
—to start again

(The Main Point: January, 1972)

Life on the fringes
ignoring your pain
words were my fortress
again and again

Riding the fence line
fixing the wire
judgment expelling
intruders and liars

Distance and loneliness
harken and call
wisdom and certainty
fate to recall

One final time
to emerge from my cave
bandage your heartache
—myself I then save

(The New Room: April, 2022)

Often, the worst punishment
you can suffer
—is not getting caught

(Dreamsleep: December, 2021)

Stars reflect
the light inside you
Their galaxy
our soul’s domain

New constellations
wait unchristened
To burn inside
— each heart to name

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)

He stood by
my cradle
And followed
my hearse
Unlocking
two portals
Both blessing
— and curse

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)