No Limits On The Freedom Of Expression

Current academic thought is like an alphabet where certain letters are being attacked and removed.  You can’t have freedom of expression by censoring letters and voices you don’t like or agree with.  Every time it’s been tried, it ultimately fails.  Freedom of expression is what has made America great and stands as a threat to totalitarian societies like Russia, China, and Iran.  A minus sign always takes you backward where a plus sign expands.  The answers lie in an ever-expanding mixture of ideas and beliefs living together for their mutual benefit where new words are created by more letters — not less.

 

As children develop language skills and learn to read, their minds expand and the world opens up around them —and more importantly, inside them.  Language becomes the great liberator that rescues children from the darkness of ignorance and obscurity, and when freely allowed to develop and expand, it creates free-thinking adults that become literate, prescient, moral, and wise.  It can’t happen any other way.

 

These lessons are everywhere in nature.  When water is free-flowing and unobstructed, it is at its cleanest and most beneficial state. When blocked up and constrained, it becomes stagnant, polluted, and undrinkable.  Festered with alkali, it can bring on sickness and death.  When trees and flowers are openly exposed to the wonder of the sky and the sun’s rays, they grow tall and expand.  Deprive them of that and they will slowly wither and die.  Both fish and mammals grow bigger when raised in open spaces that allow them to roam naturally and reach their full potential.

 

For our children to grow and expand into happy and productive people, we can’t let anyone, or anything, take away or limit their means of free expression.

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)  

 

 

In Solace

I live in an aura

of prolonged isolation

On the edge of the city

my hermitage thrives

 

Alone with my thoughts

the world but an orphan

In solace indentured

— I serve and I thrive

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)

  

When Least Expected

 

Out of left field

or deep in the night

The words come unbidden

as welcome delights

 

Not knowing the minute

or hour they’re born

They enter my consciousness

raw unadorned

 

When trying to call them

they often ignore

My summons and pleadings

that knock on their door

 

But when least expected

their gift a surprise

The breath I’ve been missing

— that keeps me alive

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)

 

 

To Dream

 

Teach them

to wonder

And teach them

to search

Teach them

to love

As you teach them

— to dream

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)

  

Never Let Time

 

Never let fear

determine

your future

 

Never let distance

turn you

away

 

Never let critics

dissuade

or discourage

 

Never let time

with its limits

— betray

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only A Poet

Before Its Asking

 

Only a Poet

can grow lilies

in the asphalt

 

Only a Poet

can dry laundry

in the rain

 

Only a Poet

can answer a question

before asking

 

Only a Poet

can cheat death

— from the grave

 

**********

 

The Bravado Of Pander

 

Self-endowed warriors

skirt the edges of danger

Lost approbation

their instincts to hunt

Dodging slings and arrows

of outraged propriety

The bravado of their pander

— in love with itself

 

*********

 

Lost Aspiration

 

Freedom

 an outrage

to those

in their prisons

 

Its arrogance

and swagger

threatens

their bars

 

To wander

a cell

their chosen

vocation

 

In lost

aspiration

 dying forever

— alone

 

**********

 

Everest Measures

 

The great majority

content to be average

But a few stir their actions

to test limits and law

 

The difference between

the strongest and weakest

Everest measures

— and Sir Edmond recalled

 

**********

 

Dicere Maximus

 

Say It Big

Say It Bigger

Say It Biggest

— BUT SAY IT

 

********

 

Foretelling

 

The magic portendo

seducing the stillness

Alone in the shadows

— at home in the dark

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baked In The Pudding

 

Poetry — Easy

Poetry — Hard

Words — To Decide

Truth — Zero Sum

 

**********

 

Free To Disagree

 

We don’t always agree

but are free to take issue

With differing minds

— that our Founder’s defend

 

**********

 

First & Last

 

Say something …

with every word

 spoke or then written

heard or unheard

With every word

free a new moment

Eternally prescient

— divorcing from time

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)

 

 

 

‘The Verdict’

In the judgment of ghosts

my hope is retried

Forgiven or not

their will to decide

 

To ever move on

or be damned here to stay

To wander my failings

mistakes on display

 

They fly through my present

back into my past

Not missing a nuance

of slippage I’ve cast

 

Returning my sentence

their jury unhung

Pronouncing the verdict

— my fate zero sum

 

********

 

 

 

Memory Lingers

 

Impropriety

the soul of wit

Audacity

its memory lingers

Incongruity

the leak that drips

Banality

— its bee unstingered

 

*******

 

God’s Nation

 

At the country’s

bicentennial

I came

of age

 

A hard bitten

patriot

and liberty

sage

 

Two hundred

years won

through blood

will and pain

 

To shine

in the glory

 God’s nation

— ordained

 

************

 

The Ivory Tower

 

Did you hear

your favorite student

when he spoke

his truth to power

 

Or when he challenged

what you said

high up

the ivory tower

 

Do you miss him now

that he has gone

into a world

unclaimed

 

And free of what

your words did spew

in pander

— false proclaimed

 

**********

 

Gears Enmesh

 

You can sulk

and brood

with Achilles heel

to sit detached in place

 

Or live in neutral

disengaged

to stay outside

the race

 

But one free choice

can change all that

to track uncovered

ground

 

When gears enmesh

to set you free

and turn your world

— around

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Windows

Only Hope

 

Some come by it

early

Some come by it

late

Some forever

waiting

Hope

— their only fate

 

********

 

Vanity Yields

 

Only as virtuous

as your

opinions

 

Only as

prescient

as today

 

Only as

righteous

as vanity yields

 

Only as

honest

— as honesty prays

 

**********

 

Alan Freed Remembered …

 

What better expression

or symbol of freedom

— than American Rock & Roll

 

**********

  

Not Without

 

No love

without hope

No hope

without faith

 

No faith

without credence

No credence

— without truth

 

**********

 

More

 

There’s more

to tomorrow

than chasing elephants

in the mist

 

More

to each moment

than history

 enlists

 

There’s more

to our joy

than lost sorrow

can deign

 

And more

to the truth

than facts

— can explain

 

********

 

Passage To India

 

Watching myself

transit

the future

and past

Lost in the

moment

transcendent

— at last

 

*********

 

New Verbiage

 

When you walk

different

You talk

different

Each step

a new high

To carry you forward

beyond getting by

 

Releasing

new verbiage

The vowels

in command

Uplifting

your message

That strutting

— commands

 

********

 

Piercing The Moment

 

Hearing myself

think

Sounds piercing

the moment

Staking each

memory

Deep into

— my heart

 

********

 

To Cover And Hide

 

Reduced

to adapt

with my life

on the run

 

Shade

blocks the light

my back

to the sun

 

Retreat

is my cadence

to cover

and hide

 

A fugitive

victim

of self

— genocide

 

********

 

My Lettered Vocation

 

With every mistake

the smarter I get

Those things that I gift

enriching me yet

The quietest moments

the loudest refrain

My lettered vocation

— new words to ordain

 

********

 

Walking The Divide

 

Between

darkness and light

truth often hides

Betraying

its motives

to walk the divide

 

Not daylight

or shadow

it lies in between

Our lost

indecision

and chasing

— the dream

 

********

 

Song Beatific

 

Silence

conscripted

Truth

to proclaim

Verses

on high

Forever

ordain

 

Angels

in chorus

Cherubs

to sing

A song

beatific

Eternity’s

— hymn

 

********

  

Windows

 

Words

 be expansive

New truth

to avow

Windows

to open

Affirming

— the now

 

********

Fouling The Air

 

A pox on the dilettante

gilding the weed

Fouling the air

— each breath that they breathe

 

********

Evidencia

 

Never explain

lost in refrain

The meaning inherent

— for readers to claim

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colors Of The Night

The Rattle

 

Sleeping in the same bed

with death

Hearing it breathing

close to my chest

 

The hours pass

slowly

From twilight

till dawn

 

The rattle

incessant

In dreams that

— prolong

 

*********

 

They Target …

 

Some say …

“People aren’t good

they want to be bad

 

“And dropping their vail

they prey

on the sad

 

“Vicarious evil

they spin

in the dark

 

“Entrapping the

weakened

— they target and mark”

 

*********

 

The Last Hope

 

Everything belongs

to those who will steal

Entitlement covets

the ones who straight deal

 

Ownership lies

in the will to invade

And take what another

has paid for in spades

 

History written

by winners and thieves

Who preyed on those weaker

 morality grieves

 

That final comeuppance

the Good Book contains

The only hope left

— when justice abstains

 

*********

 

Colors Of The Night

 

Memory ill-begotten

in this land

of broken dreams

 

Passion exists

in scant supply

heartache packed in reams

 

Feelings dark

and tainted

in colors of the night

 

Where here I sit

my soul remiss

— with no escape in sight

 

********

 

Sleeping Alone

 

At the base

of the bed

there’s a crevice

Hiding

every memory

of pain

That losing you

has caused

me

Where I sleep

alone

— again

 

********

 

Hope Returns

 

A new gift

every morning

Ain’t rich

but Lord I’m free

 

Hope returns

with each new

sunrise

— washing over me

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)

Soundbites: Sunday 5-14-2026

Truth Escapes

 

Each day shorter

than the day

before

 

Each word

sharper

and meaning more

 

Time compressing

the past

implodes

 

Truth

escaping

— life’s final throes

 

********

 

The Enemy Within

 

Everyone lives

with a cancer

deep inside of

them

 

Waiting

like a panther

striking

from within

 

If not today

tomorrow

on that

you can depend

 

Setting up

a sneak attack

malignancy

— portends

 

********

 

 

Within The Lines

 

Verse

is my mistress

Poetry

my love

Every line

my beating heart

Rhyme

sent from above

 

Feelings

wrapped in verbiage

Passion

leads the way

Stopping time

within the lines

Couplets

— on display

 

********

 

Words Rebirth

 

The leading edge

of prescience

A doorway to

beyond

Walking through

the past adieu

As words rebirth

— in song

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Highest Tide

Life is all about leverage

both overt and implied

To move the world ever forward

and sail the highest tide

 

Subtle it nudges intention

exerted our missteps reclaimed

It magnifies every action

— restoking fortuity’s flame

 

********

  

Freeing The Verse

 

To have a poem

but not the words

To bring the message

home

 

Intention firm

and feelings clear

But silence

sits the throne

 

Awaiting vowels and consonants

regifted from a sage

A marble block of verbiage

to sculpt upon the page

 

And once each phrase has taken form

it’s wed to feelings true

To free the verse that faithful waits

— unheard inside of you

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)