When the world turns
   on a whisper

Why do we insist on
  shouting

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)

Poetic transfusion,
prose bleeding through

Words but a suture
—stitching the truth

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)

Poetic transfusion
  prose bleeding through

Words but a suture
  —stitching the truth

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)

A sweetness comes with age,
  like fruit that’s overripe

A Poet then a Sage,
  on this journey into night

A wish distilled from all regret,
  its seeds to be re-sewn

A sweetness comes with age,
  that buried youth could never know

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October,2016)

I asked you to remain my student
But you wanted to teach
The balance between us changing
Our past out of reach
I gave what I could to your memory
And you borrowed the rest
Repayment to be due on arrival
  —as you fly from the nest

(Villanova Pennsylvania- January, 2019)

Symptomatic folly,
the tail now wags the dog

Whose bark, it whimper’s drolly,
all teeth removed and gone

Reacting, never acting,
  new victims every day

All courage has retracted,
—the future in harms way

Jailed speech unto the warden,
  whose words may not contend

Our patriotic burden,
  its truth we must defend

With cowards grabbing power,
  a swamp that we must cross

Lies from ivory towers,
—to fell at any cost

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)

Start looking outside your frame of reference,
  for that which will stand you alone

Stop longing for praise or high endorsement,
  things only borrowed or loaned

Start feeling those words you preach unto others,
   no longer hiding yourself away

Stop blaming the time and the message it brings
  —for those excuses that keep you ‘at bay’

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Start looking outside your frame of reference
  for that which stands you alone

Stop longing for praise or high endorsement
  things only borrowed or loaned

Start feeling those words you preach unto others
   no longer idling yourself away

Stop blaming the time and the message it brings
  —for those excuses that keep you ‘at bay’

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Watching myself
Watching you
Standing alone
And looking through

Watching myself
Reach out through the pain
A shadow in the darkness
A tear in your rain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2016)

Is your pathway to heaven now structured
  with those words that your verse seeks to pray

Is your stairway straight up or diverted,
  with remittance and debts to repay

Is your meaning construed or verbatim,
  with intention set free of this world

Is your love what was given or taken,
—with your heart now at ease and unfurled

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Standing on the wrong side of the platform
  waiting for the train

Remembering the mistakes I made
  but not the reasons why

Listening for the truth beyond the excuse
  feeling what my thoughts would never allow

I boarded in the dark….

Ticketed, to a new and unplanned destination
  —fated, to a distant terminal unknown

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Words,
A magic
Salve
For the
Unspoken
Tragedy
Of a
Thought
Once
Denied

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)

Everyone listened, but nobody talked,
  as the Vicar rode on by

His horse an old swayback, loaded with bibles
  stove hat pointing up toward the sky

Everyone listened, but nobody smiled,
  as the Vicar stormed and raged

“To hell in an instant, to hell you’re all going,”
   bony fingers turning the page

Monday till Saturday they spread their delight
  catch-as-catch-can, then again

But Sunday morning to awaken in fright
—and face the Vicars threatening hand

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2018)

Present past and present
  future

Holy Trinity with the here
  and now

Three states that bind all
  known creation

Defining when but never
  how

This very instant the past
  calls forward

The future answers
  from a timeless path

Where all three join and
  walk together

To bless this moment
  —the one to last

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)

My window opens wider,
  as my focus narrows down

The words are now much richer
  than what I used to think profound

The light brings joy and substance,
  filling corners deep and closed

Its breezes tinged with lilac
  —all negatives exposed

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

My window opens wider
  as my focus narrows down

The words are now much richer
  than what I used to think profound

The light brings joy and substance
  filling corners deep and closed

Its breezes tinged with lilac
  —all negatives exposed

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Returning to what was,
  the past became death

All time in the coffin,
—eternity at rest

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2018)

Taking a last breath inside
  the final moment

All perception at once
  inhaled

   —never to be released again

(Las Vegas: August, 2015)

Taking a last breath inside
  the final moment

All perception at once
  inhaled

   —never to be released again

(Las Vegas: August, 2015)

The truth redeemed,
The past reclaimed
   —within your final hour

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

The writing came early,
  the reading came late

The knot hanging loosely
—untied at the gate

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2017)

How many sons
  have we lost

How many demons
  have we found

How many graves
  must we dig

To make the ‘Fatherland’
  proud

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

At what point…
  does the fiction you’ve created become true

At what point…
  do old lies make more sense than new truths

At what point…
  do prevarication and veracity reframe

At what point…
  do they come together—their message the same

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2018)

Two streams below the falls,
  the feeling and message part

Drowning with malcontent
—whirling in a twisted flow

(Las Vegas Boulevard: 2 A.M. January, 2018)

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,
then 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,
  within the time you invest

Are the feelings you hoped for,
—at your spirits behest

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

They come to me couplets,
  they come to me tight

They come to me rhyming,
  they come to me right

With lessened confusion,
   more light in the air

All youthful illusions,
   exposed,
   — ‘au contraire’

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Convincing myself of my own importance
  —I became an audience of one

(Bryn Mawr College: Pennsylvania: January, 2014)