Stalking a dream
trailing a memory
A scent came in focus
  wafting desire

Seized by the moment
alluding a time warp
Tracking its shadow
ambush on fire

Covered in greasepaint
fear is approaching
Hearing its footsteps
the jungle embarked

Crosshair detention
target redemption
Locked and reloaded
—one shot in the dark

(Dreamsleep: September, 2023)

The fuse was lit
on the ending of my trauma

Awaiting combustion
—joy in the wind

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)

Traipsing off to the cave
with my feelings and thoughts

A Hermit I’ll be,
my last battle now fought

Alone with my memories,
together indwelt

Eternity reckoned
—transcending myself

(Dreamsleep: October, 2020)

When the final act of courage
is gone
—all you have left is hope

(30th Street Station: May, 2021)

The secret unlocked,
to stay or to leave

Each mystery unsolved
—a memory bereaved

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)

I never chose to live among you,
and choose to die alone

My thoughts in writing here beside me
—last verse my ticket home

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

Draining all there was to say,
he hemorrhaged one more poem
Last vial of his history,
whose burden now atoned

With final drops to say adieu,
the past and future dead
His last tomorrow here today
—and time no longer bled

(Dreamsleep: April. April 2022)

Is truth that important,
or ignorance bliss

Your place on the Ferris Wheel,
roundly dismissed

What first must go up,
by law to come down

Gravity’s joke,
if not Heaven bound

The yes from the no,
the right from the wrong

The good from the bad,
the weak from the strong

A circular stage
on which we perform

Whose show must go on,
to laud or to scorn

But why do we wonder
and worry about

A dogmatic treatise,
that one we can shout

The flow is unending,
catching all in its path

A current that’s ridden
by yacht and by raft

The proof’s in the pudding,
the cook still unnamed

Whose recipe seasoned,
to praise or to blame

One thing to be certain,
these words are not true

But then they’re not false,
something old—something new

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

A day longer than forever,
a heartbeat past goodbye

A prayer to wake the darkest sleep
—and hope to answer why

(Dreamsleep: February, 2020)

Can you pray without a doctrine,
sing above the choir

Can you cast off earthly burdens,
burn without the fire

Can you give, no longer taking,
as you welcome strangers in

Can you love beyond all feeling
—your last words to then forgive

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Writing the final chapter…
the bells in the tower ring for me
Once for each phrase unwritten
twice for each grievance atoned

—as—

“Schoolchildren rise
pulling back the covers on the flowering meadow
Singing my words
blessing the fields as they run

“Memory half gone
released into the cradle of times rebirth
Taking what I gave
and leaving what I could not forgive

“The reasons, the seasons
melding together, flashing lost images
Redeeming their promise
christening new moments forever endowed

“Yesterday and tomorrow
I am free of their deception
My last words to stay hidden
—in the laughter of a child”

(The New Room: June, 2022)

Cleft palate ill-fated
splitting inside us,
a hidden betrayal
—memory’s scar

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021) O

Lusting after everything,
my words in search of what that brings
I ride through time upon the wind
—to chase the ****** queen

(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)

What is the age
of reality itself
Older than
a metaphor
Unreferenced
on a shelf

What is the distance
unmeasured from within
Spoken of
but never seen
A poets
dying whim

What is time uncounted
as numbers lose their clout
The hourglass
returned to sand
An abacus
in doubt

What is love ungifted
but feelings’ last excuse
To roam unlinked
between the chains
And blame it
—on the Muse

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

The trappings of
a Poet …
or being a Poet
They’re each something
different
remote and distinct
The tweed jacket
wood paneled
image deceiver
Lays claim to what
only
—enlightenment inks

(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)

Are consciousness and memory linked,
if so to what degree

Do thoughts control what knowledge seeks,
does reflection hold the key

Remembering back through sense of self,
trying to define

If what is past now lays the track
—that underwrites our mind

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

To never change a mind that’s closed
or stroke the lion’s mane
With fate embedded, etched in stone
you’re left with what remains
In tunnels dark and burrowed deep
you hide from nature’s wrath
Whose last denial, truth reviled
—reseeds the garden path

(The New Room: July, 2022)

Charted lanes of custom,
complacency alights
familiarity trumping all
—mindless in the night

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

Republican or Democrat,
the wool has been pulled

Over the eyes
of a nation of fools

The truth is just fine
if we get it spoon fed

In our favorite flavor
self-served in our beds

While off in the distance
an Angel stands guard

Bemused at the folly
we ‘Stepfords’ regard

And as he takes flight,
looking down at the fray

Seeing into the future…
that reckoning day

When we **** one another,
without knowing why

Lost sheep running rampant
—redemption denied

(Garrett Hill Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

Looking out
he took that step
intrepid
and risked it all

Faith to act
as his belay
one last piton
in the wall

Descent set free
in motion
a true heart
to guide him down

For love of life
and moments gone
belief once lost
—refound

(The New Room: December, 2023)

We’re born,
as we start dying

We change,
while remaining the same

We search,
neglecting to find

We return
—while leaving again

(Ronald McDonald House-Phila: January, 2020)

I walked the same path I had always walked,
but the flowers and the bushes were changed
The birds had stopped singing, the woods became dark,
and my memory a tiger untamed
I came to that spot where tomorrow began,
but the gates to its entry were closed
The path veering inward where remembrance escaped
—to wander both free and alone

(St. David’s Pennsylvania: December, 2021)

Born young again myself befriends,
the years all left behind
To wither and die one last goodbye
then bury into time
Born young until myself instilled
as deja vu reminds
Of Autumn snow my heart aglow
—new memory in rhyme

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

To understand
deeply
the one to the many

Salvation
unquestioned
the weakest in need

Your heart always
truest
when starting the journey

The sheep
that’s been lost
— where humanity bleeds

(The New Room: February, 2024)

Greatness
is condemned to loneliness
as the desert calls
magnifying the instant
through the burning glass
unleashing its essence
in the fire of possibility
spreading old ashes reborn
—upon the sand

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

How deep do we travel
inside the divide
When crossing a line
we may not survive

How much of existence
lies waiting beyond
Those things without answers
— in moments becalmed

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)

Running toward my yesterdays,
the future in pursuit

The loosest ends when left undone
—the past my guilt recruits

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)

You’ll never catch that perfect wave
or write a perfect verse
The search that drives—the voice that saves,
where all our dreams rehearse

(Sunset Beach: April, 1982)

Bags…
stuffed full with dreams
packed in the night
—waiting for dawn

(Dreamsleep: August, 2021)

No more white horses
or pretty ladies
No more bright mornings
or silver skies
No more engagement
with hopes and wishes
No more will promises
cover lies

Once more the danger
is ****** upon me
Once more the mirror
reflects the shame
Once more the time
is left abandoned
Once more tomorrow
—myself to blame

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Poetic intention
exceeding my words
Meanings now idle
truth left unstirred

Marching unspoken
Marching unheard
Marching without me
—to march undeterred

(The New Room: March, 2022)

Be somebody’s hero,
give more than you get

Reach for something bigger,
cast a wider net

Be somebody’s hero,
your name to live beyond

The casket and the headstone
—your memory left in song

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2019)

Lost in confusion,
distracted by tomorrow
anxiety his lover
—memory undreamed

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)

Preying on the truth
politics sets the trap
Isolating fact from fiction
always on attack

Their circles non-concentric
each area zero-sum
To tempt your fate with poison bait
—never to become

(The New Room: July, 2022)

Not knowing the outcome,
I’d hide in the field

And wait for nature
to turn out the yield

Perception unharvested,
the thick to the thin

The fantasies rotting
—all truth caving in

(Stoltzfus Farm: December, 2020)

Alone
in my boyhood
the adult awaits
impatient indulgence
the year growing late

The woods
and the forest
refuse to let go
my spirit within them
the man to forego

Parents
and teachers
left counting the days
as wonder and whimsy
hold on and delay

The moment
I falter
the day that I fall
that boy left to wander
— where time never calls

(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)