Vacuous dreams
and stolen joy

Shadows at dawn,
lost girls and boys

Promises broken,
tears deprived

Light excepted
—truth denied

(Dreamsleep: March, 2021)

In judgment we are sentenced…
its verdict zero-sum

(The New Room: November, 2021)

Within this structure,
my words remain
Each line a fortress,
as thoughts refrain

The ramparts solid,
its moat retracts
All quivers loaded,
as doubt attacks

The enemy constant,
assault on fire
What darkness births,
one phrase retires

The battle spoken
upon the wind
My legend written
—still safe within

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

A new beginning
begins the end
A different octave
whose voice portends

The circle squares
as angles form
escape your memory
salvation born

A new beginning
first and last
Once you enter
the past is past

All colors exit
as black meets white
gray indifference
to lace the night

A new beginning
storms on fire
ice is raging
polar spires

Eight directions
up is down
Buried mantra
—transcendence found

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Markets are strong
as bridges crumble

Dividends fly
while highways collapse

Earnings per share
define false adoration

Gift wrapping burns
—on the last empty box

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2020)

Words serve the meaning
and not the form
To awaken the morning
in spirit reborn

Each phrase as created
each couplet of verse
In praise of itself
—the structure to curse

(Dreamsleep: June, 2023)

The shorter the distance
between concept and words
The deeper the impact
—of what’s to be heard

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

You can’t burn out
if not on fire
You can’t be hurt
without desire
You can’t be found
if never lost
You’ll never melt
without a frost
Your memory void
without a thought
You’re never freed
if never caught
You’ll never plant
without a seed
You need the words
to have a creed
The past depends
on present spent
The pawn shop thrives
on items lent
The morning lost
without the night
The truth abeyant
—wrong or right

(The New Room: July, 2022)

Often, I have to challenge the words,
after they’re written

Often, I struggle to understand,
what the Muse is trying to say

Often, I have to cede the ground,
that buttresses my thinking

Often, the voices calling out
—are strangers to my ear

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

Gentle as a razor,
her words cutting deep
Robbing tomorrow
of yesterday’s sleep
Her voice rising sharply
to greet the new pain
A bleeding Madonna
—in strawberry rain

(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)

Turn out those horses
that came back without me

Honor their service
that carried me on

Turn out those horses
that strut in my absence

Dusted in silver
—my honor is strong

(Las Vegas: January, 2022)

Leaky Poets
dripping Prose
Words secreted
left unchose

Wanton memories
twisted lies
Moment’s bartered
naked I’s

Love on steroids
feelings burn
Swelling heartache
pages turn

New tomorrow
old reprise
Armageddon
death’s surprise

One more time
into the breach
Last wave ceding
from the beach

Leaky Poets
undisclosed
One word answer
—no one knows

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

When you spit
into the face
of destiny
— eternity watches

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)

In a bullpen of violence
—throw the first pitch

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

A dark cloud swept o’er me today,
and visited but couldn’t stay

It tried to blow my voice away,
but stronger winds then had their say

Poisoning rains lay overhead,
whose black veil lifts in mornings glow

Their invocation scoffed again
—by everything Mariah knows

(University Of Pennsylvania Hospital: April, 2020)
‘Thank You Drs. Torp, Thaler & Weinstein’

“Cowardice often hides behind
   intelligence

“Until the strong winds of conviction
   —blow it away.”

(Quote From My New Novel: Sold Out, February, 2020)

I refuse to remember
what I can never forget

Words lost to my memory,
lined deep with regret

The faster I write,
the deeper I hide

A reckoning hovers
—forgiveness denied

(Dreamsleep: February, 2021)

If absurdity
is the only reality

Time is the new servant
—to what lies within

(Dreamsleep: October, 2019)

You know it’s the end
when shadows abandon

Memory fades
as light is recalled

No longer master,
time is imploding

Wishes undreamed
—then nothing at all

(The New Room: April, 2021)

The Ocean has no conscience,
no judgment, joy, or hate

She dances with you to her beat
in stirring waves of fate

With reverence you may enter
all blessings on the day

But just one slip and she reminds
what ancient mariners say…

“Red sky at morning, sailors take warning
red sky at night, sailors delight”

Her message best taken when early to bed
life in the balance, her power to dread

(Rosemont Pennsylvania: June, 2022)

Twilight beckons
a wavering moon
Chasing the sunset
from darkening skies

Clouded reminder
renewal has come
Birthing new shadows
in fresh summer rain

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Painting with words
speaking in colors
Palette of voices
—rainbow Divine

(Dreamsleep: June, 2023)

To fight a war
you cannot win…
what are you to do?

As missiles fly
and billions die
—the blame belongs to who?

(Dreamsleep: March, 2022)

To achieve a great victory,
you must forgive a great sin

Blood of the innocent,
death to begin

The voices of children,
our enemy’s shield

As bombs have no conscience
—till darkness to yield

(Bryn Mawr College: September, 2021)

Our scars
self-requited
define
who we are

The pain
when it’s welcome
embedded
unmarred

Each blemish
redeeming
those choices
to blame

Absolving
our future
releasing
the shame

(‘Searching For Crazy Horse:’ September, 2010)

None of us get to stay forever,
no matter how we try

The fuse burns short with memory’s fire
—into the bye and bye

(Dreamsleep: December, 2020)

All passion enslaved to Aphrodite,
her chains beyond silver or gold

Where time will forever surrender,
to love—never purchased or sold

(Rosemont Pennsylvania: February, 2020)

Putting up the white flag,
laying down my gun

Turning my back on fantasy,
projects left undone

Unlike other enemies,
she’s neither front nor back

But lives where only she can go,
where color turns to black

Her voice becomes a mimic,
ventriloquist of my soul

As words come uninvited,
their letters rhyming whole

Resistance now is futile,
my nights pass sleep deprived

Mercy vacant, her voice my own
—all victory denied

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2020)

Is consciousness God…
his church the sublime

As we look incorrectly,
ever hoping to find

His very existence,
the womb that enwraps

Surrounding our being
—all sentience trapped

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2019)

I hate the business of writing
the commerce of word craft
the tedium of publishing
the deadlines imposed

I hate the word count
the editing and proofing
the book signing travel
and agents exposed

I hate the promotion
each workshop and fair
the reviews and the podcasts
the bookstores that sell

But I love the writing
when the words come together
releasing my spirit
—my fortune to tell

(The New Room: January, 2022)

Gripping the meteor,
both hands for dear life

Expelling, compelling,
less heat and more light

Afraid to let go,
knowing what it will mean

My pen to go dry
—my heart not to bleed

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Entropy evaporating
into itself

Birthing an ending
—singular truth

(Villanova Pennsylvania: Tribute To Stephen Hawking October, 2020)

Music ...
weaves through
my memory
its fusion
sublime

Wrapping
each vision
tight
in harmony’s
vine

Music ...
filling
the din
where the silences
troll

Each thought
plays a note
in a
symphony
— whole

(Villanova University: June, 2024)

Music is to written words
as icing is to cake

Enhancing what you thought you read,
to joyously partake

A song can climb between the layers
to make each serving fly

Sent from Maestro’s high above
—sweet memories bye and bye

(Dreamsleep: November, 2020)

One choice and circumstance
set us apart
Forever divergent
forever two hearts

One lasting reminder
of what can’t be fixed
The eggshells lay scattered
the pieces all nixed

In less than an instant
the future was charred  
Most scarlet of letters
forgiveness stays barred

And now to requestion
the maybe’s and why’s
The Stone of Excalibur
— an easier try

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Listen to the silence,
hear each frozen word
wrap your mind around itself
distant from the herd
Feel the bracing numbness,
lift what can’t be touched
free one starling in the night
—windblown through the musk

(Dreamsleep: February, 2022)

Can you talk about good
without acknowledging evil

Could they ever
exist on their own

Can you go somewhere
without leaving someplace else

The answer
fairly shown

Simplistic by nature,
linguistic in form

Contrast
rules the day

Allowing for one
by embracing the other

Truth to each
conveys

(Wayne Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

Poetry,
collaboration of one heart
and one mind

Written symbiotic,
for many voices
to sing

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)

You steal my breath,
  as I borrow your words

You fill my eyes,
  as I empty my fear

Your heart beats in my chest,
  as it breaks in my soul

You begin where I end
  —symbiosis reborn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)