Outrunning his destiny
fate to rescind
chance in the rearview
reflections within

A moment to gather
a lifetime in chase
the wind bearing transit
—alone in the race

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

Living at maximum RPM,
the world outside surrounds me
Setting traps and digging holes
to slow my motion down

I bob and weave, increasing speed,
the pitfalls deep and mighty
Hunted for the threat I pose
—their treadmills overwound

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: July, 2021)

I’m not asking for approval,
that belongs to time
The spoken words I cherish most,
to you seem out of rhyme
I’m not asking for acceptance,
my muse rejects your praise
In darker moments light is found
—your comments weakly phrased

(The New Room: December, 2021)

Shovel ready verse,
new soil to disturb

Whose well to make deeper
—its draft future heard

(Dreamsleep: February, 2021)

An unbridled affection for writing,
an unfettered attempt at the truth

An unbending rebut of excuses
—a Sage lost in the promise of youth

(Dreamsleep: March, 2017)

If Sartre was right
and
“Hell Is—Other People”
then
Isolation holds the key
that
opens perception’s door

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

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

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Living after love departs
—life after death

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)

Art nothing more
than an act of creation

Becoming Divine
every new inspiration

Tunnels of wonder
your fortune to mine

Time as the drill bit
— transcendence sublime

(Dreamsleep: August, 2024)

Sometimes …
there’s one poem
that opens your mind
And clears out
the cobwebs
that gather in kind
The words
defy entropy  
speaking as one
And pushing you
forward
— their mission is done

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)

Writing empty spaces,
words taken away

Leaving a great silence
—where destiny plays

(Dreamsleep: August, 2021)

The lungs don’t work
—when the heart is broken

(Dreamsleep: April, 2020)

Often
in the space
of words unspoken
— truth most dearly hides

(The New Room: February, 2025)

Leaving nothing to his children but cowardly shame,
his back turned toward the light

His memory the captor of a traitorous scheme,
capitulating through the fight

His legacy broken, his endowment recalled,
his reputation scorched and burned

Offering to the Devil his original sin
—with redemption twice suborned

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2020)

Hope may wane
and wishes fade
but art forever keeps
Dawn till dusk
till dawn again
incessance buried deep
Sculptors sculpt
and painters paint
as writers seize the day
Creation’s bridge
its toll insures
—tomorrow’s yesterday

(The New Room: September, 2023)

Like waking and
breakfast
it’s poetry first

The day is so
ordered
quenching my thirst

Each word like a
greeting
the day on parade

Each feeling
endemic
— another one saved

(Dreamsleep: April, 2024)

Adventure,
pursuit of awe
—celebration of the unknown

(Dreamsleep: July, 2022)

I offered you everything;
you took it all

Leaving me nothing
—no last curtain call

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2020)

The only one along this road…
riding shotgun through my mind
Tomorrow waits for someone else,
lost wanderings consigned
Forgetting what the moment augurs,
living in the past
Confirming what I’m most afraid of
—behind whoever’s last

(The New Room: January, 2022)

The night shift…
working in anonymity
semi-detached
Finding a hidden
emptiness
blinding daylight always hides
Tying up the
looser ends
of conscious dislocation
Bringing you back
inside yourself
through darkness circumscribed

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

Rushing forward,
pushing back
Light entrances,
then attacks
Preying darkness,
shadows hide
Lumined future
—demons cry    

(The New Room: April, 2021)

Gone like September
from the wind
Gone like the Robin
from its wing
Gone like a child
from its laughter
Gone like the memory
of Spring

Gone like the Priest
behind his vestments
Gone like the hours
from the day
Gone like the waves
atop the ocean
Gone like the months
that lead to May

Gone are the reasons
from excuses
Gone are the moments
trapped in time
Gone is today
from tomorrow
Gone is the magic
left behind

Gone are the memories
from recollection
Gone the beginnings
from the ends
Gone every joy
from every sorrow
Gone what you broke
—but couldn’t bend

(Dreamsleep: June, 2022)

It’s easy to criticize…
harder to know

The poison unleashing,
reflections aglow

Assumption to breed
where temerity hides

The lie in sheep’s clothing
—truth buried inside

(Dreamsleep: January, 2021)

Not alive enough to die…
lost between a heartbeat
and the bitter end
His spirit wept for
tomorrow
and for yesterday
Mourning all the
buried visions
—of what might have been

(The New Room: September, 2022)

I can’t draw,
but I paint

I still sin,
but a saint

I talk best
when I’m mute

All I’ve lost
in pursuit

I begin
at the middle

And end
at the start

To give back
to the silence

This thing
—we call art

(The New Room: March, 2021)

Lightly armed and uncommitted
—the question always turns to why

(Martha Brown’s Woods: January, 2021)

Cars line the highways
with their broken life inhabitants,
coffined tributes to a last wish that got away,
android druids in mock procession
—racing toward the end

(University Of Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

The weight of your words…
by the pound,
by the pain

The heaviest memories,
forever
—remain

(The New Room: April, 2021)

Born of perdition’s rage
and damnation  
his life was spent in vain

Orphaned by every dead-end street
where darkness hides
the greatest pain

Fear his lone relation
among shadows  
with no escape  

Living disowned on burial row
cursing each gravestone
—dying in place  

(The New Room: September, 2023)

Lost within the folds
of my regret

Trapped between today
and tomorrow

Taking
what I could never give

Losing
what I had yet to find

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

Some of us were meant to age
of those I am not one
To grace a rocker on the porch
death by zero-sum

When youth is gone my will retreats
the candle at its wick
As dreams abate, the moment late
—flowers all but picked

(Dreamsleep August, 2022)

Embers of the past…  
fire inside my memory,
cinders of time
—ashes in the wind

(The New Room: June, 2021)

It’s not about what’s right…
but about who has the power
to dictate what’s right

(University Of Pennsylvania: January, 2022)

Busted Flat …

Poetic busking
the white lines advancing

A voice on the asphalt
the rubber — the road

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)



The Heaviest Silence

Oh, to be cursed
with the burden of truth

Without the propensity
—to speak it out loud

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Either I’m right
and you’re wrong
Or you’re right
and I’m wrong
Or we’re both wrong
—but we both can’t be right

(St. David’s Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

You see a wall,
where I see a door

You are imprisoned,
I am implored

You spend your fortune
on relics that burn

I, but a beggar
—last verse heaven earned

(Dreamsleep: October, 2019)

of a morning
of a window
singing freely
/once heard

of a longing
of a distance
in the memory
/wayward

of a darkness
of a warning
that prophetic
/sojourned

but a vow
but a promise
a betrothal
/returned

(Dreamsleep: February, 2021)

Joy
cannot last
Few moments
contain
The unbridled
feeling
Euphoria
claims

Joy
but a transient
It comes
and it goes
Resetting
our wishes
To bask
— in its glow

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

Do you write to a standard
that isn’t your own
Do you pledge your allegiance
to a dilettante throne

Do you shut out your Muse
when her words pierce the skin
Do you think before feeling
looking out never in

Is your nighttime belabored
with dreams from the past
Is the daylight a hunter
your guilt running fast

Is the one choice that’s left you
the one you can’t make
Is the courage required
—your one failing grace

(Dreamsleep: October, 2023)

Locked behind the doors of my heart,
good wishes sleep unsaid
Whose key I’ve lost and yet to find
…this lonely empty bed
With dreams undreamt and vacant nights,
the hours linger on
All hopes and tidings unfulfilled
—and feelings all but gone

(Warsaw: March, 2022)

Once upon a time
the old songs were new
On prairies unplanted
invaders were few

Where rivers rolled onward
no ferries or towns
All riverboat minstrels
new ages impound

The time of the season
unmeasured refrain
And cursed belladonna
tomorrow to reign

As butterfly’s wander
o’er questions unasked
A dark shrouded answer
—  the future unmasks

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Yesterday inside my head
—tomorrow in my heart

(Dreamsleep: June, 2021)