Lighting Tomorrow

Memory’s
lantern
near empty
unfilled

Each night
in the darkness
to flicker
until

Your eye
without warning
a flash
unexplained

Forever
relighting
and fanning
— the flame

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)


Shamal Winds

Lost
in the deepest
recesses of myself
And happier
than I have
any right to be
The hidden
regions
my newfound oasis
A Bedouin
convert
— home among the sands

(The New Room: June, 2025)

Infestation

The American Dream
becoming
a nightmare ...
Conscripted
by strangers
new thieves in the night
Usurping
our freedoms
embedded among us
Invested in nothing
but
— what they can steal

(University Of Pennsylvania: June, 2025)


Leaving The Noise

He came into
silence
like fish
take to water

The only thing
constant
his being
alone

To wander
the alleys
of quiet
reception

The noise
and confusion
for others
— to drone

(The New Room: June, 2025)

Abeyance

Raging
against the machine
Dying
in the light
Counting
the hours till darkness
Waiting
— for delight

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)

Storm Clouds

I wanted to speak my mind
until I changed it
I wanted to write a book
without the critic  
I wanted to fall in love
until I lost her
I wanted wealth and fame
— without the thunder

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)


Cosmic Shelf

A Shooting Star
In A Mason Jar
Preserved And Waiting
So Near — So Far

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)

The Weight

Some carry the burden
early
Some carry the burden
late
Some carry the burden
deep inside
Some carry the burden
— of fate

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)


Circuit Bard

Neurons
are mindful
And fire
as healers
Defying
the symptoms
Igniting
— the cure

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024

Festival Of San Fermin

Running the gamble
— living the dream

(Pamplona Spain: July, 1977)


‘Pathway To Hell ...”

Money is to promises
what bureaucracy is to care
Chasing lost indemnity
— uncertainty’s despair

(Dreamsleep: August, 2024)


The Lost Garden

A bad seed
illy planted
Fallow
—and alone

(Denison Iowa, September, 1967)


Au Chante

The pathway
to happiness
Goes through
—the open heart

(Midway Airport: August, 2024)

Verbal Foundlings

Free or blank
tomato
tomatto

Without rhyme’s link
there’s no
bravado

The verse left orphaned
all kinship
spurned

As unconnected
words crash
— and burn

(The New Room: July, 2024)


Death Grip

The tighter
we hold on
The faster
— it slips away

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)


Now Is Now

Freedom in the moment
the past is the past
Throwing off chains
— tomorrow recast

(Dreamsleep: August, 2024)


Reaching Back

Closer in the distance
than what endears my touch
I focus on your memory
— reclaimed in fated lust

(Dreamsleep: August, 2024)

Mariah’s Return

Mistral wishes
blow hope
to tomorrow

Intention
most sacred
— ushering wind

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Cupid’s Bow

Indifference
and hatred
are blind
— but not love

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Godot Waits

Minding his business
biding his time
Dodging the bullets
— fate preassigned

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Divinity’s Wind

Masters of War
Victors of Time
Sultans of Glory
Martyrs Sublime

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)

Blessed Quietude

Audibly
  we rise
and fall

But Silence ...
is the language
of God

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Lost In Place

The past
is never where you left it
Tomorrow
— delegitimizes today

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Groupies

Liking ...
sometimes better
than loving

(Keith Richards: June, 2024)


First Step

Standing at the crossroads
and knowing that you’re there
Going left or going right
coin toss or a dare
Pushed by fate determined
into sorrow, joy, or pain
First step taken tells the tale
— of destiny proclaimed

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)

If true
that old age
is but a bad habit …
what can youth become

*

Divorcing passion
from intellect
Two orphans
created
Homeless together
— inside of one soul

*

If you want
to be free
First
be a prisoner
A captive
of prescience
An inmate
— of self

*

Contradiction …
a privilege of freedom

*

Knowledge is a prison
— and freedom its bars

**

The pedantic
philosopher
Indistinguishable
— from the fool

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)

Poison Ivy

Academia …
cesspool
of deception
harbinger
— of lies

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Occam’s Edge

Plurality
without necessity
— pandering time

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


The Right Fork

Newness …
birth mother
to anticipation

(From ‘Calling Me Home:’ May, 2024)

Out from under
the burden of proof
Changing the argument
— freeing the truth

…..

Saying it shorter
staying intact
Words more empowered
— tightening the slack

…..

Writing … the cake
Reading … the icing
Licking the spoon
— crumbs of delight

…..

Leaders made
not born
when so inclined

To rise
or fall
— with choice defined

…..

Freedom and consciousness
answers implied
Unknown to the masses
whose questions have died

Freedom and consciousness
trysting aware
Betrothing each other
— to wed in what’s shared

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)

Dead Calm

Without friction
there is no motion
Without motion
— creation stops

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Abeyance

My pen is searching
for its guitar case
a place to sleep
when the writing’s done

To rest in the dark  
between flowing moments
of what might be coming
— and old verses sung

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Nowhere To Hide

The haunting of our memories
never to escape
No continent wide nor ocean deep
— will shield us from their ****

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Falling Into Silence

For years
I’ve had an old man’s body
Today
an old man’s mind

The past
a memory ever haunting
Tomorrow looming
— in decline

(Listening To Paul Simon: May, 2024)


Shadow Dancing

Making everyday life poetic
doggedness abounds
Separating wheat from chaff
— harder than it sounds

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Again New Orleans

Waking up from a dream
inside another dream
inside another dream
inside another …

(Listening to Wynton Marsalis: May, 2024)

Ego’s
not armies
destroy an empire

Inside
to rampage
—pillage and burn

(Dreamsleep: March, 2022)

With over forty
years apart
let’s pretend
it’s just a day
That time we’ve lost
and what it cost
to ignore
and look away

We can’t tunnel
through the heartache
but a bridge over
can be built
To put behind
those days unrhymed
with tomorrow
— yet unfelt

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

Water, ice, and steam,
the Trinity as seen  
Three persons unto God,
whose will and spirit laud

In Holy contradiction,
their essence so defined
Divine interpretation,
eternity sublime

This moment of no matter,
nor past nor futures blamed
Embedded in our deepest selves,
beyond forsaken claims

“All glory to the Father,
devotion to the Son
Open to the Holy Ghost,
proclaimed—our souls become”

(Beaupre: January, 2022)

I have been wrong
more times than I’m right
Intentions misguided
in search of the light
Each time I have stumbled
each time that I’d fall
New chance for redemption
those voices on call
My pathway hard trodden
the ruts and the stones
Defining a journey
where wishes atone
Whose last steps once taken
though battered and torn
Emerge from the darkness
—my spirit reborn

(Dreamsleep: August, 2023)

Crossing Montana for the first time…
everything was changed

My heart no longer my own
—my spirit there reclaimed

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)

Do you demand my lies,
  instead of the truth

Do you hem and sigh,
  or stammer uncouth

Does the word unfiltered,
  get trapped in your brain

Does the message uncovered,
  wash down your drain

Does the time spent looking,
  measure time well spent

Does the verbal unlocking,
  pay your spiritual rent

Are the memories you wished for,
   in the time you invest

Are the feelings you hoped for
   —at your spirit’s behest

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

Theoretically,
we die from the moment conceived

Functionally,
we die when beset with disease

That space in between…
the land of our dreams

Where spirit’s transform
—our souls to release

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2019)

You cannot surrender
passion
**** the seeds  
of a new dawn
Silence
a word bespoken
Or finish
—what can only start

(Dreamsleep: November, 2023)

Leasing eternity…
sorrowful joy
Rent paid in moments
death’s choirboy
Light deeded tenure
sight to regain
Conceptual escrow
—vision’s domain

(The New Room: June, 2022)

The righteous
may struggle
the righteous may fall
But Hell
only exists
— in a place without love

(1st Book Of Prayers: April, 2024)

The divinity of art
hiding in the folds
Draping o’er the multitudes
placing time on hold  

Its pristine encumbrance
so gently it calls
Speaking to our purity
transcending the small

The divinity of art  
in all of its forms
Its music seeks to woo us
its canvas adorns

And once it gains entry
our emptiness hides
Eternity surrenders  
—and Heaven presides

(The New Room: May, 2023)

Short in stature,
long in fight,
the zealot stood his ground

The odds unfavored,
no end in sight,
victory still unfound

The daylight haunting,
the body count,
the field a sea of blood

A bugle blowing
for one last charge,
advancing through the mud

With force depleted
but spirit whole,
his voice heard far and wide…

“Into the jaws
of certain death
—for glory now we ride”

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2020)

Building a bridge
for others to walk
light burning at the end

It’s never enough
to stand and wait
their crossing must begin

Toeing a path
in another’s steps
fruition comes in view

Toll again paid
in memory script
—to spite the dark eschewed

(Dreamsleep: April, 2023)

You can’t destroy
a word
like vanquishing
an enemy

Its meaning cast
immortal
beyond
— victory or death

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Death is not a failing
—only its denial

(Dreamsleep: December, 2019)

Those who never take advice,
insist on giving it

To offer wine that never aged
—from empty barrels drawn

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

Those who never take advice,
insist on preaching high

To offer wine that never aged
—from empty barrels dry

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

Prisoner of the
cursed phrase
shackled by the terms
Sentenced with each damning
breath
— inmate of what’s heard

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)

Flying off the written page,
words leave their script behind

An inked stained palette of regret,
dark figures to remind

Voices soaring up and up,
released in open air

Imprisoned verses spoken free
—eternity to share

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

Consciousness is split in two,
the left side has a voice

The right side listens mute aware,
the left side has a choice

Two conscious beings inside one brain,
split left and right distinct

As knowledge shared is spoken left
—each time you stop and think

(Dreamsleep: November, 2019)

Verbal
irrigation
streams
that rush and flow
Tributaries
far and wide
messages
in tow

Watering
the wasteland
Arid lulls
retreat
Freeing what
the silence hides
and reticence
— defeats

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)

A history buried,
uncovered gold

Each memory mined
—and then retold

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

Saying goodbye,
demanding a kiss,
I set the letters free

To romp and play,
and ferry away,
impossibility

Calling their names,
a farewell to arms,
on spoken wings they go

Fond memory smiles
to last the while
—the future theirs to know

(Dreamsleep: February, 2020)

Did you not love, as flame the fire,
when springtime came in view

Your soul to task, no futures past
—the world again anew

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2019)

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

(Dreamsleep: March, 2025)

Competition ...
what keeps us alive
Sharpening our edges
fueling our drive

Setting new benchmarks
pushing the bar
Forever defining
— just who we are

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)

Auditioning for myself
the lights went down
the sound amped up
my head turned round

Auditioning for myself
the handbill flew
into the seats
the chosen few

Auditioning for myself
last line unread
the words reborn
inside my head

Auditioning for myself
I begged my leave
the stage door open
—a last reprieve

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2020)

Can you have
without owning

Can you embrace
what’s on loan

Can you give
without taking

Can your love
—stand alone

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2019)

Getting to tomorrow
on stairs of yesterday
Each tread of my reluctance
on risers of today

Promising me nothing
but wisdom from afar
Chasing reams of broken dreams
— adrift among the stars

(Dreamsleep: September, 2024)

Fictitious dreaming
those voices call
Imagined bliss
where ghosts enthrall

Enigma fashioned
bespoke to fit
Fantasia moments
—belief remits

(Dreamsleep: August, 2022)

Between
Charlie’s
Drums
Keith’s
Guitar
And ****’s
Voice
The story of
Rock & Roll
Is told
Immortalized
— and reborn

(Dreamsleep: January, 2025)