Is time but a reference
to prey and confound

(while)

In memory eternal
—enlightenment found

(Dreamsleep: February, 2023)

Writing the words
imprisoning the words

Lettered confinement
—frozen in time

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

Does worry only exist
in our memory
Or is foresight
required to fret

Will a bear live in fear
of the hunter
Or ignore what
might happen unmet

When alarm bells go off
in the moment
Rejecting the
future and past

Is time at its essence
but present
All reference
— a rationalist caste

(The New Room: January, 2024)

I was a
poet
you
were a sailor
Waves
came in couplets
words
in the brine

I was
reborn
with the ocean
in rhythm
Released
in its wonder
forever
— in rhyme

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

Roses bleed
their petals bare
Thorns gone missing
pickings rare

Crimson anguish
garden sown
Season desperate
roots bemoan

Roses bleed
their fragrance spoiled
Lovers search
as stems recoil

Cold breaths gather
northern winds
Seeds of hope
—to plant again

(Radnor Pennsylvania: May, 2022)

Two contradictions
meet intertwined
Are they or aren’t they
YES, the reply

The black hole of reason
dark matter of mind
Imploding explosions
— together in kind

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)

Lies and the truth
both fade into memory
Time caring not
whether credence or farce

Married together
they drift into silence
Passing forgotten
—through legend and curse

(Dreamsleep: February, 2023)

I know it’s
written
I don’t know
why
The heavens
tremble
as poet’s  
cry

To stand
anointed
in love’s
review
And pose
one question
rephrased
— anew

(Dreamsleep: April, 2024)

Mankind
was never meant
to survive the future
Technology
a trap
their greed as bait
Generations
sacrificed
in self destruction
On altars
of indenture
— their natures gone

(Calvary Cemetery: May, 2024)

Writer’s write
Speaker’s speak  
(and never)
— the twain shall meet

(Ketchum Idaho: August, 1983)

Were I to explain
what then would I say …
That the moon loves its axis
that each dog has its day
That the question unanswered
most answered indeed
That each start an enigma
and truth often bleeds
That the mind unexplored
without mention at all
That from season to season
time stumbles and falls
Against my better nature
I’ll place this one bet
The answer you hoped for
— you’re never to get

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Ye cursed with too much knowledge,
all fate’s within your grasp
The destiny of all beguiled
entrenched behind your mask

To Thee of grace outstanding,
the rose and bud the same
Beginnings end as endings start
assumptions die unclaimed

Oh Ye who brave the mountain,
its winds blow far and chill
Each footstep placed a sin erased
the moment frozen still

And Ye who share the journey,
all mockingbird’s deboned
Your wisdom marks a trail unseen
—for others to atone

(Las Vegas Airport: July, 2022)

If consciousness is emergent,
where is it emerging from

The dualists say… the naturalists say…
but answers just won’t come

As the blue hour seeds the dawn,
before the new arriving sun

One question hard, the self must ask
—how consciousness becomes

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

Beyond despair
new light is found
where wasted moments
live again
Befriending capsules
lost to time
the air forgiving
free of sin
Beyond all hope
there lies a wish
where cherubs promise
saving grace
And hopes and wishes
are reborn
as memory resets
—love embraced

(The First Book Of Prayers June, 2012)

Is morality an end point,
or a journey to begin

                Are right and wrong just bookends placed,
   or what then lies within

All Ethical persuasion,
to attain or just desire

Whose end result will never come
—enflamed without the fire

(Haverford Pennsylvania: July, 2019)

Cigarette smoke and cheap perfume
linger in a dance of remembrance
An unmarried aunt who clerked in a store
her rummage sale pearls yellow with age
wrapped around my memories and my fascinations
I was eleven years old when she died
and I heard my parents say: “Floss was never really happy”
But to me, she always smiled and took a
nickel from her shiny black plastic purse when it
was time for us to leave…
putting the coin in my hand and a big red lipstick
kiss on my cheek
Looking back, I think it was my parents who were
unhappy with who she was
There were whispers of past husbands and
maybe a child—but no one ever talked about it out loud
In a black and white 1950’s world Aunt Florence
was bigger than their disappointments
Living in the shadows of the post war mid-century  
a ‘loser’ could slip into one and hang on
She has outlived almost everything
I was encouraged to forget
  and her life has become rich in my memory
—growing richer with time

(Lansdowne Pennsylvania: 1959)

Time…
our most precious consumable

Buying each footstep
—lace on the pall

(Dreamsleep: April, 2020)

Tempests of
inclemency
Cyclones filled
with pain
Tornadoes come
and go at will
With nothing
to remain

Caught inside
their whirlwind
Whose spin to wreak
and hurl
A demon vortex
roaming wild
Destruction
— to unfurl

(The New Room: April, 2025)

You’ll never find out
where you might have gone
If you don’t leave
where you’ve been

You’ll never approach
who you might become
If you change
with every whim

You’ll never discover what’s
over the hill
With both feet stuck
in the sand

You’ll never discern the
right from the wrong
Indecision
—your command

(The New Room: January, 2024)

Bury a prophecy
— resurrection assured

(The New Room: April, 2025)

To **** the dreamer
not the dream
Each wish reborn
—all hope redeemed

(The New Room: August, 2022)

*****
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)

If being and the world
are one and the same
Then thinking and thoughts
are together to name
With freedom and consciousness
semantically fused
All judgment and will
—symbiotically cued

(Baldwin School: March, 2021)

Lost in a card game
that others would pass
I feel the time slowing
while covering fast

A dim all-night roadhouse
blue plate of regret
whose neon but flickers
my hunger to bet

A *** full of memory
has come unannounced
with bare knuckled waging
I raise every doubt

But the road’s calling silent
its direction unclear
my thumb pointing inward
to ante the fear

The odds long but taken
to gamble and run
my fortune extended
and past rebegun

A graveyard sits lonely
on the side of a hill
awaiting those fated
last dealer to ****

A light in the distance…
the ‘Omaha Gate’
it’s twelve minutes early
tomorrow is late

Asleep in the boxcar
alone with myself
the questions keep playing
—one ace left undealt

(Sinking Springs Diner: December, 2021)

To my Grandchildren, those great and beyond,
whom I will never meet

Know that I love you and have seen you in the eyes of your parents, when they were very small

I’ve heard your voices in the trees when the wind blows softly,
calling my name as I walk

I’ve seen your arms reaching out to me in my dreams,
as you cry “Papa” and then drift away

Your spirit is mine, as my spirit is yours; and no lifetime
can keep us apart

I watch over you now and will watch over you then,
whenever the need is great

I’m that voice you hear when you think no one else listens,
and no one else understands

And the heart that feels what you will feel
—when no one else seems to care

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

Life …
changes color
when twilight returns
Darkness
a palette
remixing your doubt
Stars
a backdrop
canvassed with unknowing
Rainbows
left truant
—moon shadows about

(Dreamsleep: August, 2023)

Coming from nowhere
destined for anywhere
Each pathway a mantra
—whose footsteps define

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

An emotional garden…
  thoughts sprout and grow

Their roots deeply planted,
  all seedlings to sow

New seasons come early
  their harvesting late

Perennial feelings
  —new words to await

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2019)

You know it’s the end
when shadows abandon

Memory fades
as light is recalled

No longer master,
time is imploding

Wishes undreamed
—then nothing at all

(The New Room: April, 2021)