Real poets don’t make lasting friends
they shun fraternity
Their truth like gritty sandpaper
abrasive when intoned  
The reader may be gratified
with what the words uncover
More likely though the pain involved
— will cut them to the bone

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

The best of the worst,
rules amidst chaos,
honor amongst thieves
—brothers in blood

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

The knife edge of verse…
a verbal incision,
whose sharpness cuts both ways

Its blood groove runs heavy
with truth dripping free
—to mark the words unsaid  

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2020)

Humanity is destined
for being at war

Attacking tomorrow,
its fate still unsure

New conflict resharpens
the dullest of blades

Where written in blood
—new history is made

(Valley Forge: November, 2020)

Through struggle
one can justify life
Losing the battle
enhances the view
Blood on the rails
all markings assured
Death as the prize
— recurring anew

(The New Room: June, 2025)

I shun the words you long to hear,
my heart and spirit cry

The votive candle burning down,
its flame a dimming lie

My pen to struggle against your will,
and scribe the message owned

That blood has drafted and pain rewrites
—not borrowed nor then loaned

(Valley Forge: January, 2021)

Compelled to fight *****,
in attempts to stay clean
The shadows conscripted,
clandestine and mean
Surprise as an ally,
you stalk and you spy
To vanquish the monster
—declawed and defied

(Villanova Chapel: December, 2021)

You thought that you could skip a stitch,
the thread provided free

You thought no one would ever notice,
just one small opening

The seam then weakened steadily,
threads loosened left and right

Excuses now unraveling,
Old Glory taking flight

The sinew given strong and taut,
to seal the danger out

But that one stitch you failed to close,
won’t mute the nightmare’s shout

Miss Ross is now in mourning,
as the stars have left the field

That one stitch you’ve forsaken
—draining blood that wouldn’t yield

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017) On-Line 3/22/2017

Leaving the place you’re going to,
my ultimate regret
a thorny road of promised dreams
I fled but can’t forget

Leaving the place that claims my heart,
still beating—buried deep
your pathway marked with blood I shed
whose wound this distance weeps

(The New Room: November, 2021)

Innocence a foreigner
if beautiful or dark
No one who can lead the way
— has purity of heart

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Saying
something witty
while having nothing
to say

Is like
spitting in the wind
to stay out
— of the spray

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

A lotta times
it ain’t good
and it ain’t bad
— it’s what it is

(Blue Front Café: August, 1969)

Good
ain’t good enough
When bad
— is better

(The Uptown Theater 1967: Philadelphia Pennsylvania)

Nowhere
ain’t nowhere
when it’s where
— you belong

(Dreamsleep: October, 2024)

Where would we be without the matter
of emptiness
What space would we reside in,
all things by degree
Emptiness as real as the matter
it contains
Perhaps even more
—as it first came to be

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

If being and the world
are one and the same
Then thinking and thoughts
are together to name
With freedom and consciousness
semantically fused
All judgment and will
—symbiotically cued

(Baldwin School: March, 2021)

My life is a Poem,
not one chosen line

And travels within me,
each mountain I climb

It dwells symbiotic,
between body and soul

To hearten each moment
—keeping me whole

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2019)

I swore
over and over
and
over and over
Forever
to love her
no matter
the whim

But time
after time
as each siren
would call  
I rambled
and left her
my nose
— in the wind

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Some words forever born inclined,
others bred in shadows

Verse conceived and left unread
—to wander lost and fallow

(Dreamsleep: April, 2020)

Leaving tomorrow
starting again
Moments resplendent
free of the din

Touching a sunrise
kissing the rain
Hugging a moonbeam
— joy preordained


(Dreamsleep: September, 2024)

Reincarnation
eternity’s myth
You’re incarnated
only once
Though many transitions
are stamped with time’s pretense
As it was in the beginning
— it will be at the end

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Rejected by parents
forsaken alone
One choice left to make
forever to roam  

The cost ever paying
their wages of sin
Steps of abandonment
traipsing within  

To beg or to borrow
the future on loan
The price of tomorrow
each moment unknown

With fate chasing after
both fortune and shame
A waif born to wander
—in search of a name

(Dreamsleep: July, 2023)

Ability to free,
impossible to seize

The moment but on loan
past-future to deceive

(Dreamsleep: November, 2019)

Holding on tight
to each moment before

The test results come
forever unsure

Reprieved for a day
condition unchanged

“Your numbers are stable
— but cancer remains”


(Ronald McDonald House: Phila. Pa, October, 2024)

The air I breathe,
the blood that flows

The light that shines,
the voice that knows

The question asked,
the answer ******

Tomorrow sold
—today on loan

(Dreamsleep: February, 2020)

Borrow from a liar
  —but steal from the truth

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

Do you want education,
or just to get high

To reach your potential,
or pie in the sky

If it’s learning you want,
then take off the mask

That laptop you worship
—deceives future and past

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

Stricken with blame,
enamored by praise

My words caught between
—to travel both ways

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Too wise for anything
but faith…
to be carried by angels
in love’s holy grail

The light in her eyes
to reign majestic
illumined by heavens
flowering dale

(Dreamsleep: December, 2021)

You can’t close the door
that opens inside
Or bottle the morrow
today seeks to hide
You can’t erase feelings
like words on a page
Or trap a new lover
— with yesterday’s cage

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)

All
is finite
or infinite
the scientists say

Laying the
trap
that supports
their foray

If either
is neither
is or
something more

Entrapping
our freedom
and handcuffed
— unsure

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)

“You may be declared the winner, Papa
—but you never beat the game”

(Grandson: Glastonbury Connecticut: November, 2021)

The bark of my knowing
is rotting away
With grain left exposing
what memory betrays
Those things I pushed outward
root deeply within
As the oldest of wood
—makes the best violin

(Dreamsleep: December, 2021)

The power in his words,
the love in his eyes

The truth in his heart
—no time can disguise

(Dreamsleep: February, 2021)

Christians flock into their churches,
travelers hit the road

Searching for what’s beyond their view
in spirit overload

To leave behind the past imprisoned,
stilted and controlled

The blacktop chanting “come what may”
—a eucharistic whole

(Dreamsleep: December, 2020)

I look upon the angry ice
and men that prowl its form
to stab and poke in rich delight
a chance to ride the storm

With blades on fire and sticks held high
they weave and crash as one
in search of that elusive net
—still guarded and unwon

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)