Leavened unleavened
risen and stayed
Lost when recovered
joyful dismay

Intrinsic extrinsic
the whole without parts
Tomorrow this moment
stopping to start

Benign and bedeviled
revealed yet unseen
A valid deception
blessed but obscene

The past and the future
hello and goodbye
Affirming rejection
— all truth to belie

(Dreamsleep: September, 2025)

Confronting
the devil’s lawyer
destiny entwined

Heaven and Hell
in the jury box
fate was on the line

The judge
Archangel Raguel
his verdict waits to scream

A sentence cast
in fire untold
— to **** the evil dream

(Dreamsleep: August, 2025)

Love,
in the end
—betrays us all

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

Swords belong
to those who wield them
Peace a dream
to those still sleeping
Wisdom lost
to visions promise
Blood the signature
—on heaven’s gate

(Dreamsleep: August, 2022)

With all the talk that so divides
—one bomb unites us all

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)

One day in January
I borrowed a day
A day from late June
I have to repay

The temperature rising
the sun high above
Birds are returning
as thoughts turn to love

As June then approaches
the bill coming due
With summer winds blowing
and everything new

I reach down in sorrow
obliged as I am
To clear my account
—the snow to begin

(Wayne Pennsylvania: January, 2024)

Blaming the innocent…
a form of insanity

Armed with good intention
—reproaching the night

(Dreamsleep: June, 2021)

Some would say,
the danger portends  

Some would say,
it all is pretend

Some would say,
the past wears a shroud

Some would say,
the quiet is loud

Some would say,
all love is for fools

Some would say,
to break every rule

Some would say,
today is unsure

Some would say,
tomorrow the cure

Some would say,
the hammer is cocked

Some would say,
the target is locked

Some would say,
the reasons persist

Some would say,
all logic resists

Some would say,
the lies are astute

Some would say,
more voices to mute

Some would say,
the weight is too much

Some would say,
to look but don’t touch

Some would say,
their talk cheap and vile

Some would say
—death kills with a smile

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2020)

Those lies became our only truth,
while tearing us apart
Each vow an empty promise made
—to drain our bleeding hearts

(Deamsleep: June, 2021)

The present once noted,
is really the past

A thirtieth of a second,
perception if fast

Most people are slower,
the flash that accepts

What our psyche affirms
—now gone and reset

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2019)

Politics governs our
temporal lives

Religion conscripting
eternity’s prize

Together they’ve killed
more than famine and war

A plague that still haunts us
—to shun and deplore

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2020)

Beyond the future
you find the past
Hiding in the present
—first and last

(Dreamsleep: December, 2022)

The coincidence of
opposites
attracts and repels

Polarity of motion
where  
all paradoxes dwell

Conjoined in their
distinction
negating the either/or

Essential
singularity
— both after and before


(Eastern College: September, 2024)

His words in transit,
world travel unleashed,
the world his page to run

Alone in his chair,
both here and then there
—the distance misbecome

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2019)

There’s a power that only certain women have,
a force beyond words to describe

Where your breath is frozen, and your eyes are locked,
with every move freeing her guise

You surrender the only thing certain and sure,
your downfall worth all she unmasks

The future and past in a war they’ll both lose
—as you give what her eyes never ask

(Dreamsleep: April, 2020)

All my friends are
virtual online
Arms-length fraternal,
distance sublime
Safe in my cave,
with cursor in hand
Downloading affection
—beyond all demand

(The New Room: April, 2021)

Choking on her
greatest asset,
America dying
from freedom abused

Twisting in the wind
a talonless eagle,
Her heart ripped open
—her power accused

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

“I will”
“I do”
“Till death do us part”

(Betrothed 3-5-1974 / Wed 9-22-1974 / In God’s Hands)

Born under a bad sign,
verses time recalled
harder luck and trouble,
moments trapped and stalled

Born under a bad sign,
rock of ages sold
answers stay unquestioned,
bells no longer toll

Born under a bad sign,
darkness settles in
rumors take the place of truth,
wages buying sin

Born under a bad sign,
desperate to belong
days belay what lies conscript,
wordless—heartless—gone

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2022)

The artist
must ****** the spark
while avoiding the flame

Never surrendering
to the heat
as light’s wonder calls his name

A flashing
of transcendence
escaping the warden of imprisoned time

Where the gold is buried deep
and hidden
—in mysteries still to mine

(State College Pennsylvania: October, 1977)

To hide yourself in public,
and turn your back on fame

Choosing thence to be alone
—the fire without the flame

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

Objective, Subjective,
which side of the coin

Will the story end up on,
its truth to purloin

“Dimensional borders”
the physicists scream

As life’s hidden fantasia
—plays out in a dream

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2019)

A poem,
a riddle

An answer
to find

A Sage,
a gamester

All truth
undefined

What’s hidden,
most treasured

Its fortune
to mine

Tomorrow
awaiting

Sequestered
—in rhyme

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2019)
Watching ‘Final Portrait’ A. Giacometti

The deepest truth lay undiscovered
in the buried words
Like unfound gold existing only
on a pirate’s map
True value in the search required
to seek and grasp

Each phrase a burrowing pen
digs into the readers mine
Fortune concealing veins of discovery
covered and unknown
Ink running free as the shaft leads inward
—anticipation karat pure

(Watching “Hemingway #2: April, 2021)

Music has a special taste
feelings lost in sound
Touching heard across the room
vision by the pound

References left unto themselves
choir boys in tune
Trading what they never had
tribute to the loon

One last chance to make the grade
masks come flying off
Darwin leaving Born in chains
climbing through the moss

Menageries have come and gone
kaleidoscopes diffused
Nomenclature chameleons
—confounded and bemused

(The New Room: January, 2023)

Tranquil and quiet...
a walk in the park
Until life’s Trojan Horse
rolls in from the dark

Cancer invading,
you must parry back
Each moment recaptured
—a present still wrapped

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2020)

Most of our lives are spent
icing the cake

Covering the substance
where meaning partakes

To coat and embellish
what we most try to hide

Distracting, misleading
—shrouded inside

(Dreamsleep: July, 2019)

Language builds a place to stand,
inside our own cognition

Each word confirms what thought instills,
in psychic recognition

Are you the true informant,
about what’s inside your head

1st person self awareness frees
—a nature higher bred

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2019)

I refuse to talk with bigots,
does that apply to you

I freely open up my mind,
to greet the world anew

Discriminatory and hateful barbs,
divide and tear apart

What poetry tries its best to mend,
inside an honest heart

Those few most vile hide behind
their fear inspired views

That bring about the worst in us,
to slander and accuse

As days grow short, my time is spent,
beneath a sun that shines

Speaking to the highest traits
—humanity divines

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2020)

Transcending jazz,
folk and rock,
blues master’s stop and bow

Winwood standing
far above,
we ask not why—but how

(Watching The Master On AXS: March, 2021)

Courage travels ...
where reason will not go

Wisdom teaches ...
what intellect cannot show

Prescience offers ...
what knowledge can’t explain

Love transient ...
infatuation to remain


(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

Politics and war
twin pillars of conflict
“Charge into weakness
retreat if there’s strength”  

High in the tower
dividing to conquer
Fate looking down
— as your destiny waits

(The New Room: February, 2024)

Planted where I am,
I watched you blossom in the field

Time being what it is,
I picked each moment that would yield

Love that’s to be shared
takes on new meaning as it sows

Joy to spread and flower
—beyond where limitation grows

(The New Room: January, 2021)

The sharper the point,
  the deeper the wound

The shorter the verse
  —the truth at high-noon

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)

Halfway to Tucumcari
the light began to wane
Halfway to Tucumcari
the guilt turned into blame

Halfway to Tucumcari
I heard that voice again
Halfway to Tucumcari
—running from the end

(Chama New Mexico: August, 2022)

Maintaining his distance,
Dylan felt safe

A musical drifter
not born for one place

His words once released,
to live on their own

The road calling windward
—far from his home  

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

Too many
times
I walked down
that road

Too many
signs
said “lighten
your load”

Too many
faces
came out of
the rain

Too many
phrases
I couldn’t
explain

(now)

Too many
voices
attract
and repel

Too many
choices
heaven
or hell

Too many
warnings
in search
of an ear

Too many
mornings
in love
with my fear

Too many
chances
to hide
from the change

Too many
off ramps
that lead
— to more pain

(Site Of The Main Point: September, 2024)