The drum beat of eternity
—keeper of the dream

(Pine Ridge South Dakota: June, 2006)

Keep the fire burning,
worshipping the ash
Changing paper into smoke
—time and mood recast

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)

The aging of time,
each year to endear
from cradle to grave
the future unclear

The aging of time,
whose toddler matures
to crawl and then walk
—as moments endure

(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)

Can you trust
if not equal

Can you hate
if not shown

Can you love
without taking

Can you have
—but not own

(Ardmore Pennsylvania: February, 2018)

Can you paint the picture
brushless

Can you sing the words
while mute

Can you dance the lone
fandango

Can you rage
—beyond your youth

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

You love the Ocean
as it comes
I love the Ocean
as it goes
Caught in its tide
of becoming
Washed in the change
— of its flow

(Yarmouth Massachusetts: September, 1974)

Victim of format,
prisoner of rhyme

Inmate of vision
—exile sublime

(Monmartre France: April, 1978)

Trapped in politics
—victims we remain

(Dreamsleep: February, 2023)

Sentenced to the future,
for those sins unpunished now

Caught inside a fatal moment
—breaking sacred vows

(St David’s Pennsylvania: February, 2020)

Life is short,
Art is long

Words but letters
—in search of song

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)

The prostrate lizard,
hated savior,
crawls the crooked road to the city

Figures, sinking with the light,
bending your prayers
—watching the sun

Light retreats
as shadows leave,
emptying space for a new awareness

Its carnal madness
telling again and again
—how far you’ve come

(West Philadelphia: December, 1972)

Only when writing
do you become ageless
Communing with eternity
— transcending time

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

God is
or He isn’t
All human reasoning
— dust in the wind

(Ode To Descartes: ‘I Believe, Therefore He Is’) May, 2024

Rest assured in the knowledge you are
—without having to know why

(Dreansleep: May, 2022)

Reality’s made
of what
it is
Not what
it might
have been

The apple
landing
on my head
Bespeaks
of now
not then

All abstract
nature
Plato drawn
To live
behind
the mask

What’s real
in substance
real in form
No future
and
—no past

(Strafford Pennsylvania: November, 2023)

The Present
an undivided instant,
motion incarnate
senses believed

The Past left captive
to memory’s enigma,
the Future escaping
—wishes deceive

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

Altering the future
confirms your existence

In for a penny
—out for a pound

(Amtrak R5: June, 2021)

Given facts  
and reasoned truth…

Can't marry each other
without changing their suit

Some things our intellect
tries to explain

Can you turn off a light
that turns back on again

The reasoning sands
and factual concrete

From thin ice to thick,
what’s now indiscreet

Decisions and choices
are still made the same

But to rent or to own
—real estate of this game

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

Abandoned
on the road of distant sorrow
mile markers ****** from the vagrants
it has claimed
All names
inscribed with crimson warnings
on devil written
eulogies
Their cries
entombed within an
eastern wind
— that blows away the dawn

(The Devil’s Highway (666): June, 2002)

May words be courageous,
  with thoughts on fire

This pen as my shield,
  to smite the ire

The darker the cave,
  bigger demons to hide

With truth as my torch
  —casting darkness aside

(Dreamsleep: June, 2019)

Casting Off The Bow Line

Goodbye
my ***** darling
I’m married
to this dream

Freedom
calling out to me
betrothal thus
redeemed

Bachelorhood
a Siren’s calling
Feted tween
the sails

Truant winds
to act upon
Legends
tell the tale

Setting off
this final time
Rudder
in my hand

Truth when hoisted
up the mast
Liberty
— commands

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

So Imbued

Crime without sanction
honor among thieves
Tomatoes tomattos
prudish obscene

Rules as their written
intention entwined
Good becomes bad
sight becomes blind

Credence engendered
by those so imbued
A prince or a pauper
depends on your view

The world in a tailspin
no two think the same
the baby the bathwater
— praising the blame  

(The New Room: February, 2024)


Time Awaits

Not connected to
the dollar

Courted
never wed

Engaged to no one
but himself

Making
his own bed

All fame and fortune
lost to fate

Constancy
of mind

Whose future readers
time awaits

His legacy
— to find

(The New Room: February, 2024)

The beginning
of the end
The end
of the beginning
To look
and not see
A desperate
path

To start
what can’t finish
Destroying
tomorrow
When eyes
remain closed
The future
— uncast

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

Chasing a memory
wrapped in a moonbeam
Lighting the darkness
—freeing the words

(Dreamsleep: September, 2023)

Looking beyond our differences,
the transformation deepened

Speaking without words,
the conversation spiked

Touching without holding on,
all feelings turned to ecstasy

Loving while letting go
—the caterpillars delight

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

Before the analysis
before the dissection
First came the reading
—the deepest of cuts

(Dreamsleep: December, 2022)

Shadows running from themselves,
caught in the in-between

Darkness battling with the light
—redemption sight unseen

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

Waiting for yesterday,
I stumbled into tomorrow
—and found my spirit lost

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

All discovery…
but one grand paradox

All reflection
—caught deeply there within

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

Nature—Lord of everything
its blizzards and its droughts

Talking back to a hurricane,
you whisper as it shouts

Your treasured possessions lie in wait
for floods to take away

That rumble heard beneath your feet
to swallow as you pray

Those things you grow and seeds you plant,
the locust comes to claim

As tidal waves begin to form
—you powerless to blame

(The New Room: November, 2021)

She believed in Astrology
he believed in her
Their White House chart in symbols strange
whose doctrine ebbed and flowed
She believed the stars made sense
her love had made him blind
To what his darkest fears had robbed
— a modern day Tom Joad

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Do you like
knowing
or the idea
of knowledge
The pretense
of perception
or a wellspring
sublime

Political
correctness
or the search
for a moonbeam
Relighting
your way
as you glow
— in its shine

(The New Room: August, 2025)