Stepping off the edge
  and into the fog,
  —I cast my fate

As time then dared
  all blinders off,
  —the hour late

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2016)

A gift inside the box...
  one question left unanswered

Whose key to then unlock
  lay distant—still unfound

(Baltimore Maryland: April, 2019)

What was created to expose,
  now a fortress meant to hide

Bastions of higher learning,
  masking havens safe for lies

Where discourse once was treasured,
  the ivy droops and sighs

With comfort their true measure,
  the dilettantes all cry

Plato is disgusted,
  John Locke is more than riled

As a millennium of learning
  is mocked in false denial

Students weak and wounded,
  from those lessons never learned

Their tomorrow’s but a doomsday,
  their futures sure to burn

Those words were there to save them,
  both the hated and revered

All truth in dialectics
   —left abandoned by their fear

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2016)

What was created to expose
  is now a fortress just to hide

A bastion of higher learning
  within a haven safe for lies

Where discourse once was treasured
  the ivy droops and sighs

With comfort their true measure,
  the dilettantes still cry

Plato is disgusted,
  John Locke is more than riled

As a millennia of learning
  is mocked in false denial

Students weak and wounded
  from those lessons never learned

Their tomorrow’s but a doomsday
  their futures sure to burn

Those words were there to save them
  both the hated and revered

All truth in dialectics
  —now abandoned by their fear

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2016)

Suspended moments between the lines,
  my mind now lost in space

Sublimated syntax buried deep,
  my spirit free to race

The light unfiltered, the sound of horns,
  my body starts to rise

The ink is calling, my pen in hand,
  new words at last—arrive

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

Who rails against the voices
  that hide so deep

And haunt the inner sanctums
  in which we sleep

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2013)

A few seconds of eternity
   two more than you’ll need

One moment of profundity
   fog gone—vision freed
  
(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2013)

Working at looking studious,
  the academic went his way

Pontificating what he didn’t know,
  his students bowed and swayed

Reading only what was duly sworn
  writing safe, within the shelf

To himself was he now smitten blind
   —an intellectual elf

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Try as I might,
  to hide from the words

Distant and fleeting,
  they still can be heard

The nouns are a kite,
  lone verb as the tail

Flying within me,
  my heart their contrail

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)

Speaking with one voice
  the silence unsettled
As the many inside me
  cry out to be heard

Laced within my words
  never fluent themselves
Woven in my acceptance
  —their gift to inspire

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: January, 2014)

To my home, the words take me
  each calling by name

Tearing walls from around me
  passion free, unrestrained

Their visions at midnight
  have lulled me to sleep

Their message when troubled
  my nightmare to greet

Through the long and the short
  it’s the words once again

Like the tide on the shore,
  they return as a friend

And lately I’m hearing
  an echoed refrain

From verses long distant
  offloading my pain

These words that I hear
  more whisper than shout

And what I once questioned,
  I no longer doubt

Through my voice they’re respoken
  to shield me from harm

Their peace like a blanket
   —under which I am warm

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2018)

Humanity bankrupted
  his checking account,
  but his love was not overdrawn

Each check that he wrote,
  each choice that he made,
  trading ingots for righting a wrong

With credit denied,
  and spirit affirmed,
  he continued to endorse what was real

Until bankers and lawyers
  destroyed with one stroke,
  his wishes—their power to steal

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

Between freedom and Instagram
  there is an island,
  where men go to be alone

An island of words
  in arresting colors,
  with meaning indicted—but seldom heard

Between Facebook and tomorrow
  a cloud sits waiting,
  where men go to find themselves

An Angel calling role
  in blind acceptance,
  all names rejected—the letters whole

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2019)

Atheists work on the breaker box,
  as Creationists source the power

Rewiring a changing system that’s flawed
  —their lights flicker in an ivory tower

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

The ‘Deceivers Of Time
  Masquerade Ball’

Invitees file past

Yesterday in drag,
  Tomorrow disguised

Today—the Present’s mask

Memories hide
  in the shadows of hope

All wishes dancing fast

Until the Jester laughs
  as the final waltz ends

Deception to the last

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

A Prince of Life—A Prince of Death,
  two courts for him to flee

One horse disappears under a ransomed
moon,
  —a drawbridge now unseen

Eyes close tight and turn within,
  all royalty disowned

As the King calls once and the Queen
  calls twice,
  —the Jester on the throne

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2016)

A better critic
  than writer…

Your tongue sharpens,
  as your pen hacks

Bastardized on the altar
  of cold description

Disavowed by the jilted Muse,
—ink bleeding red

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

It can take a lifetime…
  to learn how to write like yourself

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

I walked with Colby,
  he never walked with me

His spirit to guide us,
  his love in the lead

We circled the globe
  a time and a half

His tail was my compass
  to guide us steadfast

In all kinds of weather
  we stuck to the trail

Under sunshine and rain
  our forays prevailed

In May of last year
  he collapsed on our walk

And with valor he tried
  but his body would balk

Its been downhill since then
  with him not knowing why

The knowing inside me
  his neuropathy slide

I knew it was coming
  as he struggled to stay

And he fought till the end
  on this very sad day

As I looked in his eyes
  for the last final time

Willing to give up my life
  for his health to revive

The fates were against us
  his clock had run out

The pain in his parting
  —the joy I’m without

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November 9th, 2018)
‘Today, I lost The Best Friend I Ever Had’

Poetry…
  the key to Cosmology

A question for every answer
   —in search of itself

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2019)

Poets…
  spiritual escape artists
  in a shackled and mundane world

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2016)

Poets…
  spiritual escape artists
   —in a shackled and imprisoned world

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2016)

Does weaponizing a stolen truth
  give you the right to lie

From this perverted use of power
  do others run and hide
  
Is this how force is wielded
  on the knife edge of denial

With rules you change to suit your needs
  your sly deceitful smile

When the real truth comes upon you
  will you hang your head in shame

And see what’s false in all you’ve made
  —for temporary gain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2018)