An arrow from the darkness…
rejection finds its mark

The sharpened edge of jealousy,
its point straight through the heart

The bow retracts in shamefulness,
its string left slack and loose

One shot was made, a cursed fate
—the devil laughs anew

(Dreamsleep: February, 2020)

Virtue when expressive,
deafens bad intention

Its voice to live beyond,
excuses and retort

A minstrel plays a song unsung,
as sages rise to dance

All words rephrased in lyric tones
—the devil mute and gone

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2019)

Without hope,
condemned to desire

Without dreams
—all courtship is death

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2019)

Cheating death…
the myth we tell
—when life seems all the more

(Villanova University: August, 2020)

Signs that might be seen as omens
send me on my way
the daylight waning for today
and luck still ****** on display
flying close to danger’s coven

The wind blows fortune’s empty cast
as trackless dreams setout
dispelling hope and bringing doubt
without a name to even tout
caught within tomorrows fast

I see each warning clearly now
they speak much like a friend
whose words as tokens try to bend
rushing blindly toward the end
captured voices left to bow

Those signs that led me all point down
the road is changing fast
no clear distinction first from last
my future ****** to be my past
— the devils fiddle calling loud

(Saint David’s Pennsylvania: February, 2024)

Depravity’s eye
is looking back
its eyelid heavy
its pigment black

A twisted image
as yet profane
A sinner’s focus
of sharpened pain

Depravity’s eye
will never blink
With tears of sorrow
the devil’s ink

Forever watching
the future past
Its vision poisoned
—by judgment cast

(The New Room: July, 2023)

A pat on the back,
smoke up the rear

Shake with both hands
—perdition is near

(Dreamsleep: August, 2019)

Off in the distance,
he was whispering my name

What started as a rumor,
audible and plain

My parking meter empty,
the hour glass had run

What life only borrowed,
reclaimed—the devil’s son

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2020)

Animals think,
and animals react

Animals sleep,
and animals attack

Animals eat,
and animals mate

Animals fly,
and animals wait

Animals feel,
and animals cry

Animals sicken,
and animals die

Animals come,
and animals go

Animals watch,
and animals know

Animals stalk,
and animals deceive

But animals lack faith
—and cannot believe

(Dreamsleep: October, 2020)

To no one in particular,
but everyone out loud

What you portend as Poetry,
should never make you proud

The words are so revealing,
of what’s not inside your head

Your heart lies soundly sleeping,
there forever in your bed

The words you do disservice,
as the rhyme you then defame

The couplets maimed and slaughtered,
with free verse then just the same

With your voice not flat or tinny...
maybe you should try to sing

Because verse as you now write it
—is a bee that cannot sting

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Easier to know others
than knowing myself
Sentience numbing
what in a stranger is felt
Easier to reach out
than to look deep inside
This painfully obvious
—cognition’s divide  

(Dreamsleep: September, 2023)

Overcoming myself,
I crowned the impossible

The weight finally lifted
—abandoning the throne

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)

The tragedy of accident,
the wonderment of fate
imprisoning destiny
—on whose steps we wait

(Dreamsleep: September, 2021)

Humanities coin two sided,
on the front eternal life

On the back annihilation
—on its edge we balance fright

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

Old age brings
delusion
Youth the vengeful
liar
Caught between
confusion reigns
As time restokes
the fire

Tweedledee
and Tweedledum
The Brothers Grimm
delight
What doesn’t rob
by light of day
Will steal from you
at night

Wisdom rots on
twisted vines
That choke
the palace walls
Where jesters climb
in ill attempts
To heed the
emperor’s call

Senility
humility
Where folly
once was young
The years have come
the tears have stayed
—tomorrow on the run

(The New Room: August, 2023)

Each drawer that I fill,
stores something past

The future spread out
on the bed

As each one closes,
its memories sleep safe

Dreams quilted,
and looking ahead

Layered inside,
and kept neatly stacked

In silence,
their stories unfold

Each drawer front embossed,
with a message they share

“Open Only If Naked Or Cold”

The dresser sits quiet,
its handles untouched

As new history begins
with each write

And construction resumes,
a new dresser is built

To store words that have yet
to take flight

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2016)

Abbots of darkness
bishops of pain
Cloistered in dogma
praying for rain

Thunderous chanting
tempest above  
Damning false prophets
blessing a dove

Grace comes a hailstorm
Coventry’s shame
Lost in its downpour
thirst to remain

Warning blasphemers
in skies that portend
Ordained and self-serving
the drought never ends

(The New Room: September, 2023)

So much lost…
so little gained

Prairies in judgment,
our destiny framed

So little gained
for what we lost

Spirits now orphaned
—tomorrow the cost

(Browning Montana: Blackfoot Reservation - May, 1995).

Did you baptize the moment,
did you remake the night

Did you give truth a name,
did your secrets escape

Did you forever divide,
leaving zero to burn

Did you dance through the flames
—to the edge of goodbye

(Dreamsleep: April, 2020)

Ideas…
cut glass of perception,
Obsidian tomorrows
—etching today

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)

A Poet sits on the edge of tomorrow,
waiting for today

Notebook in hand, new words to command
—what time has yet to say

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2019)

Hiding behind
each veil of deception
a reckoning awaits

Looming above
the sea of destruction
a fugitive of fate

Grasping for breath
on the edge of tomorrow
the future air most thin

Plaguing the weak
adrift in their sorrow
— the DNA of sin

(The New Room: January, 2025)

Seven dark prodigals approached in the night,
saying: “One has escaped and
journeyed into the light”

Seven dark prodigals with shadows now gone,
longed for he who had left them
—for he who was strong

Seven dark prodigals wandered the dark,
no safety in numbers,
in search of their heart

“We must look till he’s found,” I heard two of them
say,
seven sins unforgiven
—the eighth gone astray

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)

They say to forgive and forget…
in spite of the damage they’ve done

A blessing sublime, someone better than I,
could do both—I though neither one

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

It’s easy to hide behind words,
with the truth left abandoned and stark

It’s easy to hide behind words,
with your feelings sharp pointed and dark

It’s easy to hide behind words,
when the emperor buys you new clothes

It’s easy to hide behind words
—whose deception dishonors you so

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

Mesmerized by his own success,
swimming naked and alone in the dark

Drowning in what he forever professed,
he rose and fell with each critic’s remark

Hypnotized while diving for fame,
he sank while caught in the tide

His pleadings washed up, divested and bare,
exposed—with nowhere to hide

(Crater Lake: October: 2015)