Silver lining,
pouch of gold

Last remittance,
past unsold

Blessing tendered,
pearl gateway plain

Fallen Angel
—redemption claimed

(Dreamsleep: February, 2020)

Asking for support and not your agreement,
I looked into your eyes

Seeing rejection, a stare blank and cold,
all connection was untied

Words became hollow, our rose only thorns,
a new distance did we share

Alone while together, the ending in sight
—reality laid bare

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

He should have loved his children
more than himself

He should have shared his dreams
with somebody else

He should have left a trail
that a blind man could find

He should have been more than just
—one of a kind

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

Out there alone,
my thoughts zero-sum…
the coyote’s lonely howl

I search for redemption
through cactus and sage…
the silence of an owl

Winter births Summer,
its dream comes alive…
the bear announcing Spring

In thermal forgiveness,
a following storm
—the hawk now on the wing

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)

Demanding possession…
nine tenths of the law

Last bone to fight over
—its marrow unwrought

(Dreamsleep: October, 2020)

Escaping your humanity
—the biggest myth of all

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

Before you fall,
  you’ve got to stand

Your voice once stalled,
  fates reprimand

The paradigm floats,
  on swamps that drain

Where praise cries out
   —false hope again

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2016)

The end of all is vanity,
damnation so accused
The mirror speaking falsely
—of promise purple hued

(Dreamsleep: June, 2022)

What proclaims
to save our souls
is killing its believers
Religion worse
than nuclear war …
born again deceivers

Breaking every
moral creed
stealing zero-sum
Ashes left to burn
and rot
—Yahweh on the run

(The New Room: January, 2023)

Religions embedded,
division commands
which savior, which heaven,
epistles in hand

Devotion to difference,
each split ever wide
one bible three meanings
—all preaching a lie

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

The best thing of all …
a memory treasured
The worst thing of all …
a memory shamed
Blessing the one
cursing the other
To live on beyond us
— in praise or blame


(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)

We write of the past
and guess at the future
Tracks of experience
clear and well marked

Deep in our consciousness
memory hoping
Yesterday’s kindling
— tomorrow will burn

(Dundale: June, 2024)

Being is to
becoming

As seedlings are
to blooms

Today as to
tomorrow

Midnight
unto noon

Sparks beget
a brilliance

As fans beget
the flame

Breath into
a sonnet

A child
aptly named

A thought
once spoken freely

The scent
of chosen prey

A smile
when returning

A love
—to give away

(Dreamsleep: October, 2022)

Are you bigger in your absence
than your presence could command

Is your memory that much stronger
than your being when at hand

Does the legend of your fancy
stretch the truth of what you’d done

The imagined and embellished
—a false legacy becomes

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

******* of silence
leather clad temptress
enchaining the moment
in ******* allured     

Her fear but a prison  
of far away soundings
and seraphic voices
—the future insures   

(Dreamsleep: August, 2023)

Where do you go
when your war has been won

The enemy vanquished,
the legion’s undone

What do you do
when your purpose is gone

The feelings still burning,
the will to fight strong

Where do you go,
the last battle adjourned

The fields lined in blood,
all caissons returned

As men march in unison,
their rifles unbreeched

A lone bugle calling
—the dead beyond reach

(The New Room: January, 2021)

Arm’s length
from logic
Arm’s length
from structure
Arm’s length
from physics
Arm’s length
from math

Arm’s length
from psychology
Arm’s length
from biology
Arm’s length
from heredity
Arm’s length
from creed

Armored
with feeling
Armored
with prescience
Armored
with insight
Armored
with light

Armored
with vision
Armored
with sentience
Armored
with gratitude
Armored
— with love

(West Campus: May, 2024)

Rumors,
the carpet of deception

The threshold of hearsay
—lies

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

Every time you make a new friend,
I make a new enemy

Every time you swear that you won’t,
my world falls apart

Every time you say it’s the last,
my grief is reborn

Every time I look in your eyes
—the future is lost

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)

Are you the latest one I’ve left alone,
heart Shanghaied—no goodbye

Are you wondering why as questions loom,
the answers high and dry

Were you sure you’d be the only one,
to wade misfortune’s tide

As that fated current pulled me back
—to drift again untied

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2020)

Have our brains developed
  because of our minds

Is it thought over matter,
  free will to consign

Who gave us this power,
  to till and to sow

All fruit thus comprised.
  in our memory to know

A physicists nightmare,
  their theories contrive

This question much bigger
  than their formulas chide

Darwin’s evolution,
  not passive but active

As change does occur,
  whose affect we hold captive

Those traits we develop,
   from forces unconscious

A *** that we stir,
   as we ladle our promise

To wonder and hope,
  to dream and to wish

Only human confined,
   in our souls to subsist

These edicts we know,
  from our spirits sublime

Our destinies chosen
  —and fated divine

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2019)

Does trying to disprove
what I believe
make you feel better about what
you don’t…

Is your insecurity
crying out
that maybe I feel something
you won’t…

Does the depth of my commitment
bother you so
leaving you distant
fearful and alone…

Like a branch that’s now broken
swinging high in the tree
one strong gust
  —and you’re fated to go

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Adopting the world
for what it is
The illusion orphaned
—death to begin

(Las Vegas: July, 2022)

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)

“The Wicked Flee When None Pursueth,”
proverbs tells us so

The righteous stay in judgment’s light,
to harvest what’s been sown

Those prodigal delinquent souls,
that life has cast astray

Walk free the line tween right and wrong
—till fate will have its say

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2020)