Life is precious
and people die
and people die
and people die

One day closer
a last goodbye
a last goodbye
a last goodbye

Questions asking
forever bide
forever bide
forever bide

Memory left
to answer why
to answer why
to answer why

(The New Room: July, 2024)

Days go forward,
nights in reverse

Calling us back
—to finish our search

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

The right to remember,
the right to recall

The right to uncover,
the right to forestall

The right to nostalgia,
the right to look back

The right to remember
—the right to retrack

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

The narrow hall of mourning
pathway to my grief
Darkened by each memory lost
—there in stark relief

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Cigarette smoke and cheap perfume
linger in a dance of remembrance
An unmarried aunt who clerked in a store
her rummage sale pearls yellow with age
wrapped around my memories and my fascinations
I was eleven years old when she died
and I heard my parents say: “Floss was never really happy”
But to me, she always smiled and took a
nickel from her shiny black plastic purse when it
was time for us to leave…
putting the coin in my hand and a big red lipstick
kiss on my cheek
Looking back, I think it was my parents who were
unhappy with who she was
There were whispers of past husbands and
maybe a child—but no one ever talked about it out loud
In a black and white 1950’s world Aunt Florence
was bigger than their disappointments
Living in the shadows of the post war mid-century  
a ‘loser’ could slip into one and hang on
She has outlived almost everything
I was encouraged to forget
  and her life has become rich in my memory
—growing richer with time

(Lansdowne Pennsylvania: 1959)

Touching beauty
if just for an instant
if caught by its magic
— if only just once

(Moran Junction Wyoming: August, 2021)

That vacuum
inside you
once in it
you’re trapped
Insular
nothingness
too late
to look back

What’s empty
imprisons
no reference
in space
Where freedom
and choice
become duly
— erased

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

Yesterday’s future
tomorrow today
subsuming transcendence
in all that we say

Perpetually present
the time to recall
all life in this moment
whose instant befalls

Begin a new ending
to whirl in the wind
the clock a reminder
its hour hand spins

Memory’s treasure
the fuel to inspire
each log a new effigy
—raised from the fire

(Dreamsleep: May, 2023)

Killing a memory
—birthing a lie

(Dreamsleep: August, 2023)

Shadows on a cave wall,
eyes that look for truth

Figments of what sight denies
—dancing resolute

(Durango Colorado: September, 2004)

No one’s ever gone
until forgotten

Their memory etched
like words in stone

—canyons to remind

(Chama New Mexico: January, 2019)

To become what you look at,
to say what you know

Your eyes to retract,
your wisdom to grow

To live by a credo,
to die only once

Your soul to take flight
—your spirit to hunt

(Martha Browns Woods: March, 2021)

When feelings stop,
words take over
Emotion harried,
pen unleashed
Heart in limbo,
mind resurging
Muse in waiting
—time released

(Dreamsleep: March, 2022)

You could,
but you can’t

You would,
though you won’t

You did,
then you didn’t

You were
—and you weren’t

(Dreamsleep: February, 2021)

Sea change
written
— on the face of denial  

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)

Monument Valley,
you whisper going through

HOPING IT WON’T HEAR
HOPING IT WON’T HEAR

Whatever you say
—never to be enough

(Duchesne Utah: June, 2008)

The closer we get
to Godlike
the more welcome
death will be

Returning home
no longer
alone
—the answer question free

(First Book Of Prayers: August, 2023)

Our strength
is our
distance

Where fortune
cascades

To flow
on the
borders

Where miles
assuage

Our strength
is our
distance

Arm’s length
by the score

An
echo
connecting

The dots
— heretofore

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)

The story of a Poet,
more tragic than his words

What then in fact his deeds conscript
—his writing leaves infirm  

(Dreamsleep: March, 2021)

Earbuds in and phone in hand,
millennial’s converse

Language distant, eyes unshared,
their lives on hold—obverse

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Using the simple
to state the sublime

Syllables shortened
—magic refined

(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)

Happy is he
who is content with the least
Whose hunger is sated
in famine he feasts

Happy is he
who begins at the end
And ends at the beginning
—his fortune to bend

(Dreamsleep: October, 2020)

Were you invited
into Zion
Or have a ticket
in advance
Have the doors
for you reopened
Is your history
fit to chant
The torches glow
in sequence
When you make your
entry plain
A hymn sung by
a minstrel Sage
Your welcoming
—refrain

(1st Book Of Prayers: November, 2023)

Deficit of
wonder
climbing
the walls

Deficit of
verbiage
the message
forestalled

Deficit of
promise
the future
on hold

Deficit of
time
eternity
— shoaled

(The New Room: August, 2024)

“Handmaid of Patriarchy”  
the garden rezoned
Embattled virility
misogyny cloned
As Delilah revolts  
a new Samson on scene
One half of the whole
left to drown in the stream
Each genders new quotient
to minus the plus
A He without Her
— the destruction of us

(Saint David’s Pennsylvania: May, 2025)

Hanging like a scapular,
your memory haunts my dreams

You clothe my thoughts in joyous warmth,
my lonely voice to scream…

“I live inside your shadowed love,
afraid new suns will shine

“The darkness my heart yearns to keep,
all new light—minus thine”

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

The next time I see you
—you better be gone

(Dreamsleep: February, 2020)

“Who’re you really” the Sage asked again,
that look upon his face

“It depends on who I’m looking at,”
I said, his eyes now glazed

“I’m never just one thing as you’ve heard often
in my songs

“Like the weather I am prone to change,
from right—to oft times wrong”

“But what of your essence” he asked again,
“the core of who you are”

“My essence a myth that plagues your mind,”
dimensionally scarred

“If your eyes were a laser with vision to burn,
you still would only see

“A mirage in the distance, wrapped in a mystery
—pretending to be me”

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: April, 2020)

Humble
before the sea

Steady
within the gale

Intrepid
among the waves

Thankful
—as tides return

(Christmas Tree Island:  May, 1991)

The words taste like music
from worlds long ago
Each letter resavored
in harmonies old

Coming to harvest
their sweetness imbues
A cave for an orchard
in wall painted hues

Old symbols retilling
those questions inside
Reborn when discovered
then never to hide

The silos refilling
new birthrights to seed
Replanted within us
—a symphony freed

(The New Room: January, 2023)

Hammering the dark silence,
Thor bludgeons the night

Releasing with thunder
—a storm gods delight


(Dreamsleep: February, 2020)

Ye cursed with too much knowledge,
all fate’s within your grasp
The destiny of all beguiled
entrenched behind your mask

To Thee of grace outstanding,
the rose and bud the same
Beginnings end as endings start
assumptions die unclaimed

Oh Ye who brave the mountain,
its winds blow far and chill
Each footstep placed a sin erased
the moment frozen still

And Ye who share the journey,
all mockingbird’s deboned
Your wisdom marks a trail unseen
—for others to atone

(Las Vegas Airport: July, 2022)

Information…
answers
wrapped in questions,
warped in dimension
—to overload

(Ted Talking: January 2018)

The crux
of a theory
is in what
it rules out
Clearing
the runways
narrowing
doubt
With the ballast
tossed over
all clouds
disappear
Obstacles
moved …
solutions
are near

(Dreamsleep: October, 2023)

Memories
of the future
Stolen
from the past
Caught within
tomorrow’s web
All of time
recast

Moment
after moment
Living
on the run
Embracing all
that’s come to be
And all
—that’s yet to come

(Dreamsleep: May, 2023)

There are some things
you can only sing
but never say

There are some things
given out but once
in the foray

There are some things
that the world lays claim
and takes its due

There are some things
past the cloud of time
you must pursue

Living on the edge
is sharper
cut or not

Dying for that
final answer
knowing what

Praising what the mob
is damning
come what may

Loving what the
moment seizes
— counterplayed

(Dreamsleep: August, 2024)