If you live long enough
  you can outgrow everything
  even uncertainty and doubt

As the road fades behind you
  and memories compress
  giving you a final way out

Taking you into a magical land
  between two worlds where you
  float in-between

One where you struggled and questioned yourself
  and one made of wishes
  and dreams

All choices abandoned and willed to the past
  the either-or the most cryptic
  of tombs

As you travel within and beyond just yourself
  all past futures
   —time’s sultan of doom

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2018)

Being more than a woman…
  your vision enraptured
  making me more than a man

Being more than a woman…
  my thoughts solely focus
  doing all that I can

Being more than a woman…
  my days are too long and
  our nights are too short

Being more than a woman…
  my ceiling is raised
  with new feelings to court

Being more than a woman…
  my virility strengthened
  my bravery charged

Being more than a woman…
  all pettiness gone
  with my choices enlarged

Being more than a woman…
  your breath is on fire
  your touch turns to gold

Being more than a woman…
  new promises to keep
  vows to never grow old

Being more than a woman…
  past-future rejected
  time stops at your door

Being more than a woman
  our love you’ve protected
  —and released ever more

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2018)

Fantasy,
  a past remembered

Travesty,
  regret in embers

Sophistry,
  no reason proffered

Majesty,
  the treasure offered

Artistry,
  the future tendered

Modesty,
  true self is rendered

Memory,
  where life is gathered

Presently,
—the time that matters

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

In my heart I knew little of
  the world and all its parts

As I drifted idle and wandered blind,
  through constant fits and starts

My mind reached out beyond its grasp,
  with the questions close behind

As time unfolded upon itself
  —each moment to define

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

Looking in not out,
  the picture cleared

Problems solved,
  both far and near

Motion closed,
  entropic sum

Space inflated
  —time unspun

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

My verse begins
  where logic ends

Escape its mission
  new light to bend

The easy answer
  the convenient close

Now left to others
  by others chose

Each phrase a path
  that leads inside

Beyond where dogma
  schemed and lied

A light there shines
  unto itself

By grace of nothing
  above all else

The music starts
  once halfway in

To cleanse your mind
  of lies and whim

Words join each note
  to dance in song

All time untethered
  —from right or wrong

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2019)

Time waits…
  the handmaiden of love

Love waits,
—only upon itself

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2000)

A great man silenced,
  his voice at rest

Last stanza written,
—as time will test

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

The words better naked,
  the song better clothed

My feelings stripped bare,
  my lyrics exposed

I flash and I streak,
  the melody warms

Now fully unrobed,
—my song to adorn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)

… a reason to get up
    in the morning

… open to every spirit
    on the wind

… praying for one more
    chance encounter

… ending, where I can
    again begin

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)

I go to the city
To be alone,
Distraction
Calling me away
From myself
Isolating my
Memory
Burying my
Thoughts
In endless concrete
Passing 1000 people
Never meeting
One
Never meeting
One
Who will tell me
About myself
Never meeting
One
Who will tell me
That Its real
Never meeting
One
Who will ask the question
Why,
In my darkest
Most confused
Moments
I go to the city,
—to be alone

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

A Rhyme to end
Each chosen line
Conjoined to those
Before

Each couplet
Like a stair step
Each stanza
Something more

The sound that’s made
Betrothes at once
All foreign and
Obscure

The glue within
Our spoken word
To bind us
Evermore

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2016)

Your brightness, your smile
  changed my life

As your spirit
  recharged my heart

With the strength of
  your father and mothers’ love

Only great things
  your life will impart

Listen to that voice
  above all others

The one that calls
  from inside

And marry your will
  unto your heart

All heaven to bless
  —and to guide

(Lansdale Pennsylvania: April, 2013)
To My Granddaughter Parker On Her Christening

Words rushed through my head
  clearing cobwebs away

All letters on edge
  cutting doors as they played

From one room to the other,
  they matched up and danced

And from basement to attic,
  my mind was enhanced

Without reason, beyond memory,
  they sharpened my feel

Until alone they then left me
  —to confess and reveal

(Train-Penn Station NYC: March, 2015)

Words rushed through my head,
clearing cobwebs away

All letters on edge,
cutting doors as they played

From one room to the other,
they matched up and danced

And from basement to attic,
my mind was enhanced

Within reason, beyond memory,
they sharpened my feel

Until alone they then left me,
— to confess and reveal

(Train-Penn Station NYC: March, 2015)

Are you technically perfect,
  but spiritually weak

Are your words so well crafted,
  your soul cannot speak

Are your rhythms in cadence,
  and your endings in rhyme

Are you stuck in a format,
  that kills the sublime

Do your stanzas all end,
  with the beginning destroyed

Does the summation now grieve,
  with its parts overjoyed

Can you escape your own artistry,
  can your craft turn to art

Can you risk all rejection,
—to create with your heart

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

Hopes and wishes step aside,
   as new words cut in to dance

Painting the floor red
  in lettered steps of eternity

Partners now consonant
  a song of celebration

Whose lyrics waltz inward
  —in patterns of remembrance

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)