My heart stays in Wyoming
but Montana calls my name
My spurs and bits ‘a jingling’
as my soul goes north again
Cody up through Beartooth Pass
Cooke City just below
The Great Divide off to my left
the glaciers ringed with snow
I stop to mourn the western tribes
as dark clouds form above
The war chant of Tasunka-Witko
crying out with love
My spirit loose to roam the land
the great Oglala’s words I hear
Two kindred souls in one last dance
—as Wakan Tanka draws us near

(From ‘Searching For Crazy Horse’: February, 2017)

My heart stays in Wyoming,
as Montana calls my name

My spurs and bits ‘a jingling’
my soul goes north again

Cody up through Beartooth Pass,
Cooke City just below

The Great Divide off to my left,
the glaciers ringed with snow

I stop to mourn the western tribes,
as dark clouds form above

The war call of Tasunka-Witko,
crying out with love

My spirit loose to roam the land,
the great Oglala’s words I hear

Two kindred souls in one last dance
—as Wakan Tanka draws us near

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

On a barstool
somewhere
in a lost America
with a stranger
who calls me friend
All options
dwindling
my fate in his hands
—and nearly at the end

(Choteau Montana: Ranger Jacks Bar, August 2004)

Kiss me once more lovingly,
than you have kissed before

Tell me that our love is shared,
and one plus one is four

Kiss me once more lovingly,
with time our hearts denied

As death abates, new dreams await
—forever’s wish to hide

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

The older I get,
the more dear words become

The shorter the days,
the deeper streams run

With time closing in,
I seek poems and rhymes

Into the twilight
—for that last magic line

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

I’m not wishful anymore
or here to ride the wave
My feet both mired in aging mud,
my heart now turned away

I’m not here to save the world,
nobility be ******
Time on trial my last denial
—on distant Ronan land

(Henderson North Carolina: October, 2021)

When I think back on all the times that were
—and weren’t

My mind rewrites the answers to the questions
—never asked

To set the time that’s left on fire
—in joyful hope

To rhyme the final ending line
—with one last wish

(Bryn Mawr College: January, 2020)

Without a shake
of the head
or turned up nose

The truest form
of rejection
—the eyes

(Dreamsleep: August, 2022)

Dancing through
the mine field
deftness parlayed
Destruction incumbent
the future
in play
Each step risks a lifetime
if right
turns to wrong
Tomorrow uncertain
when short
—calls for long

(Dreamsleep: November, 2023)

One More Day

Always amazing
how well this life
goes right on without us
New images tread
where shadows have fled
old memories in the dust
Nothing left behind
but words to remind
we chased the Tiger sure
Out of the jungle
into the light
—hoping for one day more

(The New Room: February, 2024)



A Finer Point

Simplify
and clear

Simplify
and clear

Not many
years left

— simplify and clear

(The County Line: February, 2024)



Trapline

Could — Would — Should
poetry’s triumvirate oxymoron

(The New Room: February, 2024)



Goodbye

Walking the wasteland
tracking the miles
rumpled old notebook
pain has compiled

Closer to yesterday
lost to today
Voices of promises
I shouldn’t have made

Trouble ahead
troubles behind
Providence follows
in only my mind

My pen almost empty
eyes nearly shut
One word to write only
— midnight has struck

(Villanova University: February, 2024)



Free Given

It matters least
that when I die
What strangers say
what ladies cry

It matters more
the ink run out
My words free given
— whose passion shouts

(Villanova University: February, 2024)

Have I lived long enough,
have I said what I came to say

Is my spirit now to rest,
has the toll-way back been paid

Have I lived long enough,
being willful, righting wrongs

A last heartache twice forgiven
—one more smile before I’m gone

(St. David’s Pennsylvania: February, 2020)

You bought one more tomorrow,
   from my borrowed yesterdays

My voice to sing with Angels,
   your love the music plays

You bought one more tomorrow,
   as you cast the dark astray

Replacing grief and sorrow
   —with a torch that lights my way

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2016)
  From My ‘Book Of Prayers’

Call me a Poet,
but I’m just a writer
these words that I breathe
respoken much later
Call me a Poet,
my couplets in rhyme
each stanza to shorten
with meaning sublime
Call me a Poet,
my retinue sounder
to live by the moment
my squares getting rounder
Call me a Poet,
I’ll call you the same
if one phrase you’ll tender
—attached to your name

(The New Room: March, 2022)

The beginning of all beginnings,
the end of all ends
—one question in-between

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

Chasing the
stoke
waves growing larger

Weekend
warriors
still on the beach

Destiny
calling
mortality daring

Odds
go to hell
above twenty feet

The spray
to the
heavens

Dropping
into
the thunder

Darkness
envelops
one prayer to beseech

The sound
of a
monster

The
howl
of its fury

But nowhere
on earth
—would I rather be

(California Surf: December, 2023)

In spite of all your riches
you eschew what prophets do
Basilicas you build to self
with time but empty pews

Wealth deadly suicidal
when wielded as a gun
Whose target sits between your eyes
with one shot zero-sum

(Dreamsleep: November, 2023)

The joy in the writing,
  all reading to construe

Spoken loud with one’s own breath
  —a vanity so true

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

The abyss of nothingness
looms large in my consciousness
Churning each moment
belaying the time

From Nietzsche to Kierkegaard
their vacuum surrounds me
An active volcano
—whose lava is primed

(Dreamsleep: November, 2022)

That day on the ledge
he started to shake
Each memory a tremor
of every mistake

The choices made suspect
as nightmares returned
The price of redemption
his destiny spurned

Alone and forgotten
his eyes straight ahead
Afraid to look down
where his hopelessness led

Each breath getting shorter
his heart beating loud
One step from perdition
one step to enshroud

But then in an instant
a voice could be heard
Not friendly or caustic
but rooted and learned

“Well jump if you have to
defeat as your crown
Your sins to fall with you
—forgiveness unfound”

(Dreamsleep: June, 2022)

A place though small enough to write,
still big enough to dream

My pen, a passport out of time,
with phrases to redeem

The North Wind calls, a purple sky,
on wings my ear enchants

And hears but one voice through the clouds
—to make the letters dance

(The New Room: February, 2021)

There’s a hole in my heart
where dreams used to be
A pain that’s indwelling
all joy there bereaved

The emptiness deepens
with each rocket that falls
One voice in the millions
—to answer the call

(Dreamsleep: October, 2023)

The playing field level
your words versus mine
A race to forever
embedded in rhyme

The score has been tied
neither side giving ground
Both phrases and couplets
inscribed to astound

It’s late in the game
when a stanza takes off
Outpacing the others
no images lost

As darkness approaches
but one voice remains
Returned from the heavens
— posterity claimed

(The New Room: February, 2024)

The rich man seeks the alms
of my envy
And the poor man the alms
of my guilt
Both missing what hides
in reflection
Dreams trapped in the silver
to smelt  

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

There are Poets
for the stage

And Poets
for the page

The difference
often subtle

In your eye,
and in your ear

There are Poets
for the stage

And Poets
for the page

One well for them
to draw from

Two voices
—speaking clear


(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)
'Thank You, Neal Hall'

While hidden deep from nature’s wrath,
waiting in disguise

Below the ground a season born,
its birthright undenied

As winter trees now bare their souls,
whose limbs reach out in pain

Tomorrow the most promised wish
—till spring comes back again

(The New Room: February, 2021)

Where does insight come from,
where do answers lie
A mockingbird to mimic truth
in streaks across the sky
The echoes of tomorrow
retreat into the past
As crumbs from where it all began
form a new repast
The light belongs to no one
all live within its glow
To claim its brightness title banned
—and lease what can’t be owned

(The New Room: July, 2022)