Guarding
our bitters
Each wrong
we have suffered
Enshrined
in our memory
Alive
in our souls
Forgiveness
a myth
The weak
will hold onto
Revenge
all the sweeter
Served hot
— and not cold
(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)
Like Masks
Forget
being clever
abandon
the word
Being cute
more offensive
its pander
absurd
They serve
as a mask
that we cower
behind
To proffer
deception
we harbor
— inside
(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)
Window Dressers
Running
different
than reigning
Politicians
shortly
find
Chasing the vote
versus
crossing the moat
Very few
able
— fewer to thrive
**********
Narrative Rewarded
Like weight training
for an athlete
poetry makes you strong
Each word a rep
till failure
to bring your lines along
A verses strength
increases
when flexed the story bold
With narrative
enrichened
— the poetry like gold
************
Venture Forth
My treasure hidden
beyond the waves
the horizon
beckons on
Through pounding surf
and giant seas
a voice
is calling strong
I set my sail
the closest reach
with tiller
in both hands
On faith alone
round jagged reefs
I trust
in who I am
Through longish days
and longer nights
my course
uncharted stays
The mainsail up
the jib reset
one albatross
relays
That fortune comes
but once in life
to those who hear
its call
And venture forth
through unknown winds
into
— the raging squall
***********
Spiritual Chrysalis
Losing oneself
to find oneself
Emptiness cowers
— catharsis begins
********
Devil At The Gate
Loyal
when it suits you
Faithful
when it’s safe
Committed
to the mirrored self
Devil
at the gate
Back turned
to the prophet
Fealty
starts to burn
Treason
left on high display
Shame
— at every turn
********
Poet & Prophet
Today
is all that matters
Memory
your biggest foe
Mining the pathway
to future promise
Excuse and weakness
grow
Time an illusion
a crutch for the weak
To hobble and stumble
in constant retreat
This moment recurring
endemic when willed
the poet and prophet
— forever instilled
*********
Never To Return
If the past is empty inside you
— the future will be lost
*********
Resistance Ignored
The world
quickly bored
at the recital
of misfortune
And most
willingly avoids
the sight
of distress
The path
of resistance
ignored
at its peril
All character
only tempered
when put
— to the test
(The New Room: June, 2026)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
Read me quote me for not a dollar
my words are free and yours to holler
Do add your spin if you so please
to make them fit or to appease
They sit and wait upon the page
for your two eyes to thus engage
To take them hither or take them yon
— and never dither where they belong
(The New Room: June, 2026)
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)
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)
An Anthology Of Perception 