Longer than forever
  much deeper than today

My heart to pass between
—love’s final wish to pray

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2018)

All power in the caliber,
  not the number or the count

Its ******* deeper,
  when focused, not shooting about

The wound well placed is mortal,
  a shot not heard till then

But a gun’s not half as fatal,
— as that thought fired from your pen

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)

Shrinking immortality into
  the moment

Ignoring the impostors
  —future and past

Inhaling eternity’s thunder
   with every breath

Breathing out
  —fire and rain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

Shrinking immortality into
  the moment

Ignoring the impostors
  future and past

Inhaling eternity’s thunder
   with every breath

Breathing out
  —fire and rain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

With age in my body,
but youth on the page

A sword old and rusted,
now tempers with rage

These bones may be brittle,
with feet slow to drill

But fire still burns,
—in my memory and will

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2016)

Literary vignette,
  snippet of truth

A little bit pregnant,
—baby’s first tooth

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

Jumping in
  I shut both eyes
  my heart lay open wide

A first hello
  my last goodbye
  to logic ill applied

Choosing an entry
  frees all to move
  the first breath to a song

Getting out
  my mind rejects…
  forever pushing on

The ending shatters
  once breaking through
  as time cuts loose its grasp

That first step forward
  past my fear
   —a die forever cast

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2018)

Knowing,  
  not repeating

The weakness
  of all refrain

A first cut,
  true and deepest

Once healed
  —its scar remains

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Knowing  
  not repeating

The weakness
  of all refrain

A first cut
  true and deepest

Once healed
  —its scar remains

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

I used the language to my own end
  never respecting rules or laws

I wrote what seemed the shortest path
  between feelings and my thoughts

I thumbed my nose at sage advice
  knowing what I wrote was true

The first cut then—the first cut now
  the deepest through and through

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2017)

Laid with words
   the writers stone
A fortress was columned
  my only real home

The poetry safe
  as it stammered and tried
As my feelings unbridled
  from the outsiders lies

Each year added substance
  to this home of the verse
My thoughts never silenced
  or my feelings there terse

All that’s needed to go there
  blind captured belief
All that’s needed to know
  is that time is the thief

My vision unshaken
  from this chair with two wheels
The advice from the experts
  to wither and yield

But my place more than sacred
  an invincible throne
Independent of body
  times seed now unsown

And the moment before
  I take my last breath
I will enter forever
  where before I had left

The trumpets will sound
  as immortality calls
To that space then my refuge
  the sum of it all

As the memories chase reason
  the facts storm again
But the tents of my solitude
  keep out their wind

For generations that follow
  and their children that ask
This place I now dwell in
  is for all hard and fast

Just believe in its message
  and its fortune to change
Just believe in transcendence
  with all things the same

Until the day that that final
  trumpet may blow
And everything seen
  is all there’s to know

Your message then solid
  as the door opens wide
And those things that are yours
  to the heavens arrive

And the joy that you feel
  thinking back on it all
From that place deep inside
—where first destiny called

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Laid solid with words
  the writers stone
A fortress was columned
  my only real home

The poetry was safe there
  it stammered and tried
As my feelings unbridled
  from the outsiders lies

Each year added layers
  to this home of the verse
My thoughts never silenced
  or my feelings there terse

All that’s needed to go there
  …unfettered belief
All that’s needed to know
  is that time is the thief

My vision unshaken
  from this chair with two wheels
The advice from the experts
  “to wither and yield”

But my place more than sacred
  an invincible throne
Independent of body
  times seed to unsow

And the moment before
  I take my last breath
I will enter forever
  where before I had left

The trumpets will sound
  as immortality calls
To that space then my refuge
  the sum of it all

As the memories unreason
  the facts storm again
But the tents of my solitude
  keep out their wind

For generations that follow
  and their children that ask
This place I now dwell in
  for all hard and fast

Just believe in its message
  and its fortune to change
Just believe in transcendence
  with all things the same

Until the day that that final
  trumpet may blow
And all that you’ve loved
  is all there’s to know

Your message then solid
  as the door opens wide
And those moments you’ve gifted
  to the heavens arrive

And the joy that you feel
  thinking back on it all
From that place deep inside
—where first destiny called

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Truth, the first casualty
  of war

Love, the last casualty
  of truth

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

There’s nothing less,
  there’s nothing more

As time repeats…
  —once evermore

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2019)

The first cut sharp and burning red,
  don’t edit away its fire

Keep the wound both fresh and raw,
never cauterize your ire

The horizon breaks just once each day,
  a new dawn—cold hearts aspire
  
Rays burning deep, first light to keep,
—its ashes to inspire

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2016)

I loved you with a first love
  no second love would ever replace

I loved you with a first love
  that when lost was forever to ache

I loved you with a first love
  when my words were fresh given and new

I loved you with a first love
  —my heart captive with feelings so true

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2016)

Release your mind from the
  drought of expedience

And harvest in the crops
  of your insanity

(Philadelphia, Woodand Ave: September 1972)

Note:  This is the first serious poem that I wrote as
            a struggling graduate student living in the
            bowels of West Philadelphia.

Five strangers walked into my dream,
  all male and all different versions
  of my deceased mother

They looked at me one by one,
  with that look—her look,
  that had been gone for so long

The first whispered to the second,
  then the second to the third,
  as the fourth and fifth just shook their heads

I tried to look away, but their presence
  followed, and my eyes were frozen
  in the judgment they proclaimed

My sleep was now haunted by what I once knew,
  a maternal affliction that my memory had cured,
  —returning again to infect my dreams

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

A sudden embarrassment,
  a moment of shame

A lifetime remembered
   —in flashbacks of pain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

Intuition is to reason
as a black hole is to space

A cistern of discovery
—void of distance, time, and place

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2018)

Good and bad are truisms…
  a qualitative masquerade

Ideology trumping feeling
  —in flashes of joy and pain

(Las Vegas: January 23, 2016)

Thoughts ignite,
  and words burn

As everything considered,
—turns to ash

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2016)

Thoughts ignite
And words burn
As everything considered,
—turns to fire

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2016)

Thoughts ignite,
  and words burn

As everything considered
  —turns to ash

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2016)