Taking a last breath inside
  the final moment

All perception at once
  inhaled

   —never to be released again

(Las Vegas: August, 2015)

The truth redeemed,
The past reclaimed
   —within your final hour

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

Taking a last breath inside
  the final moment

All perception at once
  inhaled

   —never to be released again

(Las Vegas: August, 2015)

The writing came early,
  the reading came late

The knot hanging loosely
—untied at the gate

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2017)

How many sons
  have we lost

How many demons
  have we found

How many graves
  must we dig

To make the ‘Fatherland’
  proud

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

At what point…
  does the fiction you’ve created become true

At what point…
  do old lies make more sense than new truths

At what point…
  do prevarication and veracity reframe

At what point…
  do they come together—their message the same

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2018)

Two streams below the falls,
  the feeling and message part

Drowning with malcontent
—whirling in a twisted flow

(Las Vegas Boulevard: 2 A.M. January, 2018)

Do you demand my lies,
  instead of the truth

Do you hem and sigh,
  or stammer uncouth

Does the word unfiltered,
  get trapped in your brain

Does the message uncovered,
then wash down your drain

Does the time spent looking,
  measure time well spent

Does the verbal unlocking,
pay your spiritual rent

Are the memories you wished for,
  within the time you invest

Are the feelings you hoped for,
—at your spirits behest

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

They come to me couplets,
  they come to me tight

They come to me rhyming,
  they come to me right

With lessened confusion,
   more light in the air

All youthful illusions,
   exposed,
   — ‘au contraire’

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Convincing myself of my own importance
  —I became an audience of one

(Bryn Mawr College: Pennsylvania: January, 2014)

Flying alone
   over fury enthroned

Its colors reign free
  and clear

The enemy stained
  all freedom regained

Covered in blood
  spent and dear

Stitched yellow and blue
  its messages true

That Svealand does
  not run

To hang steadfast
  and slay the past

And carry our glory
  sum

A crest ablaze
  through fire and haze

Horses hooves high in
  the air

Now honor bound
  on sacred ground

Heralding death
  —our cross to bear

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

There’s a voice deep inside me,
  that still tries to get out

No matter my mission,
  it screams and it shouts

Its call is then loudest,
  on those darkest of nights

When my mind seeks new refuge,
  from this Seraph’s delight

I toss and I turn,
  but it speaks louder still

As its words start to burn,
  from new vision distilled

No barter or denial,
  will turn back its call

The Muse is on fire,
--- my pen can no longer stall

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Never writing for the masses,
  just writing for you

One lone set of ears,
  to share life anew

Never writing for consensus,
  my words not for rent

To call through the ages
  —with a voice heaven sent

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

Be it Melville or Tolstoy
  or a Pen still to burn

Know the words are just borrowed
  —until silence returns

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)

The brain writes the script
  as the soul provides the ink

Words forever faithful
—thoughts and feelings now engaged

Logic builds the platform
  for passions rolling thunder

The format set, a voice shouts free
  —the truth alone on stage

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2017)

I asked for your blessing…
  instead you explained

What I should be thinking
  to lessen your pain

You told me if only
  I’d say it this way

My words could have meaning
  and influence—sway

But power and fortune
  are not what I sought

If influence only
  gets brokered and bought

So the blessing passed over
  your lecture now done

A last vow to myself
  —from you I must run

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

I asked for your blessing,
  instead you explained

What I should be paying
  to garner acclaim

You told me if only
  I’d do it this way

My words could have meaning
  and influence—sway

But power and fortune
  are not what I sought

If influence only
  gets brokered and bought

So the blessing passed over,
  no bribery done

A last vow to myself
  —from you I must run

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Wrapping letters around
  the conflict

The war played out
  with words

The fury of shouted
  diction

Slaying enemies still
  unheard

Shooting vision
  into the onslaught

Attacking the silence
  as legion’s advance

Loading insight into
  the canons

Killing the emptiness
—with a warrior’s chant

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

Wrapping letters around
  the conflict

A war played out
  with words

The fury of shouted
  diction

Slaying enemies still
  unheard

Shooting vision
  into the onslaught

Attacking silence
  as legion’s advance

Loading insight into
  the canons

Killing emptiness
  —with a warrior’s chant

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

I cast my dreams
  into the current’s wake
    —on the river of no return

And rode a wish
  down the running stream
    —toward a waterfall unheard

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

I rode the feeling
  down a running stream,
      — to the river of no return

And cast my fate
  into the current's wake,
     — toward a waterfall unheard

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

The spare bedroom of life,
  is where I sleep now

The other rooms taken,
  the past dreaming proud

This cot that I lie on,
  one sheet to keep warm

With furniture missing,
  and curtains all torn

The end of the season,
  the end of the hall

Forgetting the reasons,
  my memory now small

As both eyes shut tightly,
  my vision within

A palace awating,
—a welcoming hymn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)

The deeper you care
   the more remote you become

What the present reveals
  no clock can outrun

The past and the future
  for others to know

This journey one-way
  where only you’ll go

Those voices who call
  pull you deeper within

Not lost but alone
  taking flight back to Him

As Jesus and Mohammed
  and Crazy Horse knew

The path to true knowledge
  doubt ridden and strewn

With the old voices silenced
  new voices begin

As your eyes slowly close
  —to their welcoming hymn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2018)

Is there an image in your imagery,
  a still behind the flask

A spell within the potion,
  an answer, question asked

A beginning in your ending line,
  a peace that’s worth the bout

A phrase that makes all history shake,
—a whisper then to shout

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

Opinion,
  shapes the
  aftermath
  of what once was free

A commentary of
  detainment,
  adrift
   —on a windless sea

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)

Making love to your memory,
  I watched her walk past

Blonde, eighteen and tan,
  and this decade my last

A memory comes back,
  as new feelings release

Of a field in September,
  when our hearts were at peace

And I thought of you fondly,
  as I watched her go by

I held the thought warmly,
  and tried not to cry

Turning my head now to follow,
  she passed to my left

My joint pain now hollow,
  old passions bereft

But this memory won’t leave me,
  as that summer you did

These thoughts now my own,
  where you once did forbid

And as she steps through the doorway,
  a fantasy unknown

I make love to her memory,
—with a wish now on loan

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

Making love to remembrance,
  I see her walk past

Blonde, eighteen and tan,
  and this decade my last

A memory comes back,
  as new feelings release

Of a field in September,
  when our hearts were at peace

And I think of you fondly,
  as I watch her pass by

I hold the thought warmly,
  as she looks in my eyes

With my head now to follow,
  she turns to my left

My joint pain endemic,
  my passion still deft

But this memory won’t leave me,
  as that summer you did

These new thoughts my own,
  where you took ours and hid

And as she steps through the doorway,
  a fantasy unknown

I make love to her memory
  —with a wish still on loan

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

Is Poetics
  a poem or a process

Is Love
  a lover or romance

Is Art
a painting or a vision

Is Worship
  a place or deliverance

Is Freedom
  a word or a statement

Is Family
  just blood that we share

Is Duty
  an oath or vocation

Is Truth
  just a wish—undeclared

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)