The Pride And The Longing

One man’s ‘Old Days’
another man’s ‘New’
Chasing a memory
the pilgrim is due

One reminisces
what one only schemes
The pride and the longing
— two sides of a dream

(Ardmore Pennsylvania: June, 2025)


Shades Of Gray

Mixing wheat
with the chaff
The good
with the bad
In shadings
of gray
The truth
finds a home

Taking shape
from the whole
When shunning
both ends
Polarity’s
vanish
And clarity
— shown

(Ardmore Pennsylvania: June, 2025)

*****
in tatters
Gomorrah
is ash
L.A. lies
burning
New York
in the trash

Cowards
run rampant
Weakness
endeared
Our heritage
shattered
With traitors
— revered

(Inside The Fire: June, 2025)

With over forty
years apart
let’s pretend
it’s just a day
That time we’ve lost
and what it cost
to ignore
and look away

We can’t tunnel
through the heartache
but a bridge over
can be built
To put behind
those days unrhymed
with tomorrow
— yet unfelt

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

Complex topics
simple rhymes
Truth untangled
darkness shines
Terse in format
long on tone
Silence Christened
sin bemoans

Complex topics
simple rhymes
Said but once
forever chime
One breath frees
indentured words
Locked away
— in verse unheard

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

That gear to move forward
is often reverse
The best choice of words
fortune hides in a curse
Our holiest blessing
an omen that warns
And friendship most sacred
in traitor’s reborn
Today frees tomorrow
once yesterday’s gone
Each phrase that escapes us
new words to a song
The time of the season
Fall Winter and Spring
A Summer of angels
— new devils will bring

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

In the back
of my mind
there’s a shadow
Covering
what’s never
to be

In the back
of my mind
there’s a memory
Reminding
what’s dearest
to me

In the back
of my mind
there’s a longing
Driving
me constantly
on

In the back
of my mind
there’s a mantra
Repeating
its message
— in song

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

I learned many things from him ...

That the trackless path
is gifted
to those
who believe
That the distance
between thoughts
can only be connected
by words
That the idea itself
is worthless
without the thing
it expressed
That tomorrow
is no more important
than yesterday
or today
That the bullfighter
must never die
with the bull
still alive
That revolution
is the truest place
where death
is reborn
That real courage
is only measured
by the one
sorely lacking
That to love her once
is better
than to love
her again
That you must
when you must
until the bugles
have stopped
That worshipping
oneself
is life’s fatal
devotion
That the jungle
we chase
is the jungle
we live in
That the willingness
to say it
frees a willingness
to act
That each great new
adventure
begets a greater
new ending
That in the tears
of a stranger
bleeds the heart
— of a friend

(Key West: January, 1994)