You can feel,
but no longer find
the love
Surrounding,
no longer inside
the love
Remembering,
you cannot forget
the love
Lingering,
you wander in search
—of love

(Danville Pennsylvania: January, 2021)

That laughter you hear in the background
—death following closely behind

(Villanova University: July, 2019)

The staff of my Father enjoining the past
futurity’s herding a bleating morass
The bloodline of orphans forever is linked
tattooing the flock with invisible ink
The first time the last time when nearing the end
tomorrow’s ungifted excuses portend
And times better nature is better untimed
beginning and ending forever conjoined
Eternity’s fenceposts hem in with disdain
all future inclemency fire and rain
But just as that last final sheep stays unsold
— my Father returns to re-shepherd the fold

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

Like an exiting wind,
voices leave from within

As the feelings impart,
verbal memories embark

A last spoken refrain,
to escape unrestrained

As the sky opens wide
—heavens breath to provide

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2020)

Hey there, high school teacher,
your talent to rebuff
but when you try imagining
your focus coarse and rough

Your feelings mostly borrowed,
your words ill-gotten gains
your hours spent in false critique
of someone else’s pain

You’re outclassed high-school teacher,
your envy on display
your pedantry a mocking tone
and pretense on parade

(To Wayne Miller: April, 1967)

The world collectively
lost its mind
When fires burned
our vision blind

From East to West
and North to South
Insanity
from mouth to mouth

The world has finally
woken up
Pundits quartered
their lies corrupt

Mobbed together
they screamed on high
But run for cover
—as truth decries

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Foreigner
to death

Alien
to mortality

Gateway
to transcendence

Angel
from beyond

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

Before I started asking,
I was too busy living

The questions still in limbo
—the answers undefined

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2019)

The raw material of art
is pain
The grandest illusion of all
is time
Whether parchment, canvas,
melody or stone
Each breakthrough immortal
—creation sublime

(The New Room: March, 2023)

Is it a memory that pushes
  the future away

As wishes embody our souls

Is it a promise that opens
  and closes our hearts

All hope to then console

Is it a longing that reigns
  over friendship now lost

Of times once sorely blest

Is it the searching for love
  and the choice to believe

The stars at our behest

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2019)

No one lived more inside the moment,
No one left others more bent to his will,
No one remembered more for the things that he said,
No one more misunderstood while being so loved
—than Muhammad Ali

(Louisville Kentucky: July, 2020)

Why try to write like somebody else,
by others passion driven

A watered down copy, trespassing free,
to alien words you’re smitten

A copycat artist who mimics the sounds,
your voice a toast unbidden

While somebody’s pain and somebody’s joy
—the stolen horse you’ve ridden

(Rosemont Pennsylvania: April, 2020)

Clouds encircle
sage colored dreams,
ice crystals block the sky

Today in shadows,
yesterday’s warning,
memories start to cry

The stratus thickens,
impending doom,
prophesy to remind

****** has woken,
his rain of tears
—ablution most unkind

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)

When you’ve been to the top of the mountain
—you can relive the view from afar

(Bear Tooth Pass: August, 2019)

Climbing the mountain,
you walk on its rim  
scratching the surface
never let in
Once at the summit
new footing takes hold
rock you can stand on
—legend foretold

Climbing the mountain,
never look down
focus above you
reach for the crown
Others who failed
and others to come
will follow the tracks
—that lead zero sum

(The New Room: March, 2022)

That by which you no longer win
—you forever lose

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)

I’ve lived up
till now
with my thumb
in life’s eye
In reckless
abandon
I shucked
and I jived

No ******
was safe
no harlot
denied
The wages
of sin
my fortune
— allied

(Dreamsleep: October, 2024)

Can your intelligence
   wound your spirit

Can your mind
  entrap your soul

Can your hopes and wishes,
  logic ****

Can damnation
  be the toll

  Or

Can a promise
  wed tomorrow

Can the future
  slay the past

A lifetime spent,
  a moment earned

With love
  —the thing that lasts

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2019)

The truth in translation
knowledge distraught …
He swept through the cosmos
a truant uncaught
His wings never clipped
his sails never trimmed
He flew through tomorrow
a new Seraphim
Those who were watching
their eyes disbelieve
Unburdened by dogma
—transcendence achieved

(The New Room: March, 2023)

Is there a thread that binds and ties…
an artist to his soul

Does it thin or thickly mend,
to come apart or tightly hold

Is it there to patch the deepest tear,
with the essence of its form

Does its very nature reattach,
when in fury it is torn

Will it stitch a quilt of memories,
from a past that’s ripped and frayed

Can it hem the truth within arms reach
—when again we’ve lost our way

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

s
T
R
U
G
G
L
E

ARRIVAL

D
E
C
L
I
N
E

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

s
T
R
U
G
G
L
E

ARRIVAL

D
E
C
L
I
N
E

    (Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

The reality of who we were
destroyed what we were
—as the thresher kills the rose

(Dreamsleep: July, 2019)

My door is made of solid bronze
but doesn’t have a lock

Patina’d with the stain of blood
from all the battles fought

It swings upon a rusted hinge
and creaks when open wide

To welcome back the future-past
the present safe inside

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: August, 2020)

I'm back from war without my soul,
having pawned it on the field
Among the dead and buried dreams,
whose futile prayers concealed
I wonder where my spirit hides,
as I sleep these endless hours
With day as night and night as day,
in loneliness devoured
My mind goes back to search the graves,
old enemies inside
And calls my name into the dark
—reclaiming every lie

(Dreamsleep: October, 2020)

Live hard
Write easy
Footsteps washing
With the tide

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

Life when it’s tragic
a forced similarity
Spreading like water
—flooding the plain

(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)