He died that night
In a cheap motel
In Maryville Tennessee
$35.00 karma mixed with
The smell of curry
Coming from the front office
No one would ever understand
Why he chose to die there
Especially those few
Who claimed to know him well
The gravel parking lot
The towels you could see through
And the lawn chairs inside
For furniture
Made the connection and the
Endless search real
In a way it hadn’t been before
As he sat outside his room
Thinking about the end
The local construction workers
Remembered his name
As they called out to him
At the end of their day
Marking time by a weekly rate
In their rooms just down the hall
They remembered the little things
His own family had forgotten  
Or not so little…

           AND THEN HE DIED
       IN HIS $35.00 MOTEL ROOM

    HIS PASSING A BURIED MEMORY
  AND HEADSTONE FOREVER BLANK

(Newport Tennessee: April, 2013)

Did you wear your life out;
  did you use it all up
  —what are you saving it for

We’re all running headlong
  toward a hole in the ground
   —that the past and future insure

Are you stuck on tomorrow
  lost in wishes of things
  —hoping there’s still more to come

Will your headstone bring sorrow
  to those mourning your loss
  —inscribing what never got done

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2018)

Hear,
Before speaking the words
Unwritten

Speak,
After writing the words
Unheard

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

A storm is coming,
  the sky will cry

Each cloud a tissue,
  old light to die

The gale once gone,
  all hope renewed

From end to end,
  the picture blue

The circle spins,
  the cycle turns

What came before
  must then return

The seasons frozen
  by grand decree

One reason chosen
  to set you free

All time a servant
  His master plan

The past and future
   just also-rans

This moment precious,
  this moment blessed

To live within you
—your heart at rest

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2018)

Love yourself first
  before someone else will

Feelings vested, spirit rhymed
  attraction distilled

Love yourself first
  before someone else will

Your beauty self-reflected
—another’s heart to fill

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2018)

What is the difference
  between a fact and the truth

One limited in time,
  the other free and unproved

Language and formula,
  the great deceivers abound

As the light burns inside us
  —our hearts to impound

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

Do your words sharpen,
  as your feelings dull

Do your actions harken,
  what’s still to cull

Do your wheels spin faster,
  as you sink in place

Does the meaning retreat,
  as you blindly chase

Do your moments forecast
  or serve to remind

Does the past just bookmark
  what your future declines

Does the master you serve
  in false prophecy dwell

Do you still have the choice
  —between Heaven and Hell  

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)

To live life as a Poet,
  to slay the demon time

Your spirit freed with every verse,
  in meter and in rhyme

To reach beyond your passion,
  to say what others feel

To bring tomorrow home today,
the devils wrath to reel

To wander past your memory,
  returning once again

Each word a ticket through the gate,
its path now lined with friends

Their faces each and every one,
a title to a poem

That left your hand so long ago,
—with heaven its to roam

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

Art must be transcendent
  to justify itself

It must leave its creator
  and go somewhere else

Directing itself onward
  in a life of its own

Its form to become formless
  —once heavenly known

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2019)

Locked inside a rhythm,
  married to each sound

The cadence plays a wedding march,
  the rhyme our vow out loud

Betrothed inside their union,
  a love forever grows

Verses come and children play,
—as heaven only knows

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

The body borrowed,
  the soul to lend

The clock runs quickly,
—each click portends

The choices wagered,
  the chips they fall

The sins if proffered,
—a last downfall

Your memory staggered,
  the past in waves

The future stealing,
—are you enslaved

The trumpet blows,
  one last farewell

The die is cast,
  —heaven or hell

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)

All of your efforts…
  an homage to false reasoning

Excuses misleading,
  art's truth to disown

Heaven's Atelier
  beyond comprehension

Its masterpiece living
  —beyond canvas or stone

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

Religion… my writing,
  all faith in my pen

My savior the words,
—the Muse heaven sent

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)