Making love to the words,
  our tryst lasted till dawn

The sun now a blanket,
  covered verses to warm

Making love to the words,
  all new phrases to sleep

Resting fertile and silent
  —until daylight retreats

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

Seeing better from a distance
  than you ever could up close

The memories play like children
   in voices that you spoke

The truth is where you find it
   every season, every turn

Where space creates acceptance
  —your soul to file or to burn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Seeing better from a distance,
  than you ever could up close

The memories play like children,
   in voices that you spoke

The truth is where you find it,
   every season, every turn

Where space becomes entitled
  —your soul to file or to burn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Filling my words with music
  the moment took off and flew

All heaven to await its arrival
  the Angels and Sirens in view

Filling my words with song
  their spirit released once again

The devil to cover his ears
—the past and future in sin

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2018)

I played out my string,
  I ran my race

My chaps are frayed,
  but spurs in place

Still one horse to ride,
  with saddle in hand

That last trail awaits
—final sunset commands

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2017)

With days becoming short
  the light is growing dim

My eyes no longer search
  this vow my final hymn

Its message splits the air
  a flight with no return

The journey to within
—one final torch to burn  

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2018)

Beneath the cover of defeat,
  final victory comes late
  
Sustained only by a will
—refusing to give in

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2016)

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)