A new

beginning

 

An older

end

 

Which way

to enter

 

To break

or bend

 

From start

to finish

 

Who gets

to choose

 

What time

holds hostage

 

To win

— or lose

 

********

 

 

Without Care

 

Women

can love

in an instant

 

But men

only able

at times

 

Women

get lost

in the daydream

 

Where men

stay aloof

undefined

 

Women

hold onto

each moment

 

A man

throws away

without care

 

Women will

question

those feelings

 

That men

so evade

— au contraire

 

********

 

Passions Shower

 

Art

is the wayward

sister

of sex

 

The

wellspring

of creative

power

 

Paying

its dues

to what lust

behooves

 

Planting

 those seeds

only

— passion can shower

 

********

 

 

Spark And Fury

 

Daring you

to think

Asking you

to wonder

Step outside

your comfort zone

Meet me

in the thunder

 

All the trees

majestic

The sky bright

crimson red

Where voices that

your birth set free

Call out to you

again

 

Your home

where spark and fury

ignite the fire

inside

And welcomed back

you’ll not return

To where excuses

— hide

 

********

 

 

Your Fate

 

When you incorporate

with the devil

A junior partner

is all you’ll be

The I.P.O. seals

your fate forever

Your soul

 — no longer free

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asked about

his gender

The Son

says “NO”

 

“I created

them solely

for procreation

to flow

 

“The love child

of Mary

and My Father

on high

 

“I purpose

them both

my Holy Spirit

— alive”

 

********

  

Never

 

Living to the max

the writing comes easy

 

(BUT)

 

You’ll never live easy

— and write to the max

 

********

 

The Temptress

 

The Divine Tyranny

of Art

Whose anguished temptation

 forever imparts

 

It grows in your spirit

while taking its tole

And leaves you abandoned

­ — alone unconsoled

 

********

 

Come Rocinante

 

He was a pilgrim

in defense of a shrine

That doesn’t exist

a mirage in the wind

 

A new Don Quixote

tilting at windmills

His gaze but a portal

— to the fire within

 

(Dreamsleep: July, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complexities

message

within

simple rhyme

 

The shortest

route taken

to phrase

and define

 

What others

may see

but will struggle

to feel

 

Each word

chosen simply

like spokes

on a wheel

 

That turns

and spins freely

no gears

to obstruct

 

And rolls

ever forward

its path

to instruct

 

One day

to remember

as you sit there

alone

 

In foreign

confusion

the rhyme

— takes you home

 

********

 

If The Shoe Fits …

 

You lurk

in the shadows

voyeur

that you are

 

And wait

to pass judgment

from safely

afar

 

Your hands

never dirty

your alibi

clean

 

In a larcened

attempt

to steal

other’s dreams

 

You prey

and you stalk

behind words

you make up

 

To slash

from behind

with a knife

that won’t cut

 

But herein

you’ll die

as the silence

forays

 

To rot in

self-loathing

yourself

— to betray

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To Spark Interest

 

More than the

competence

And more than

the form

More than

verbosity

And more than

its charms

More than

acceptance

And more than

 the fame

Hoping

to spark interest

Nothing more

— will I claim

 

********

 

Surrounding His Heart

 

In a manner

peculiar

to himself

love was in vain

 

The standard

that other’s

depended upon

his never to feign

 

The love of a maiden

the love of a lass

lay broken

to bits

 

Impaled by the armor

surrounding

his heart

ungiven — remiss

 

********

 

 But A Memory

 

 

********

 

Alone & Silent

 

The water

rushing over the falls

belies its force

 

A trickle

1000 miles North

contains its source

 

A poem that’s written

then published

and rewrapped in fame

 

Hides what moments alone

and silence

— forever sustain

 

********

 

A Last Final Act

 

Using Logic to

explain Divinity …

a futile endeavor

 

Love the gift

that keeps on giving

 through hate and ill weather

 

Through spirit alone

we return to the source

of our making

 

Repledging our souls

in a last final act

— of becoming

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The devil

not leaving …

still in my employ

 

Our contract

most simple …

once signed to destroy

 

He offers

me riches

beyond every dream

 

And smiles

the smile

his depravity screams

 

Contented

to wait

as time has no measure

 

Within his dark

fortune

damnation a treasure

 

But once

out of wishes

the reckoning comes

 

To bathe

in the mire

— of eternity’s scum

 

********* 

 

Red Coats & Tempests

 

If history

interred

in the shallowest

 grave

 

Freedom

 reborn

in a desperate

 age

 

Throughout conflict

and eras

they march

hand in hand

 

History

for certain

but freedom

must stand

 

The attacks

on its drafters

and champions

combined

 

To carry

e’er forward

and forever

remind

 

That values

held precious

and tenets

held true

 

With blood

and with treasure

 be defended

 anew

 

Until

decades and

centuries

have given it form

 

And through

red coats

and tempests

— to weather the storm

 

******** 

 

Let Freedom Ring

 

The decent opinion

of humanity

is the lever

that changes the world

 

The defense of that

opinion has bound us

into a country

that history will herald

 

The tenets and phrases

defining

what the patriot

and free man requires

 

Contained in our

most sacred scripture

by Jefferson

— and others inspired

 

**********

 

Death Before Dishonor

 

Crushing the hardest stone

besting the vilest foe

Raising the highest flag

sinking the deepest hoe

 

Living one for the other

in unity we stand

Death before dishonor

— upon this sacred land

 

********

 

 

Safe Passage

 

Your words

are most attractive

They sit

above your form

To tell of deep

encounters

Inside

where truth is born

 

They float most free

above you

A literary  

crown

To guarantee

safe passage

And speak the truth

— profound

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fate Conjoined

 

A vine can grow

on any tree

Be it strong or weak

of root

 

To climb until

the trunk is starved

ascending

foot by foot

 

Caring not a whit

the tree imperiled

it wraps its way

around

 

To kill the thing

its fate conjoins

and die

— ripped from the ground

 

*********

 

To Ian

 

A light goes out

just South of Calgary

His voice recaptured

in the wind

What’s been said

by saddle bred

As memory sings

— a cowboy hymn

 

*********

 

Borders In Place

 

Giving form

to illusion

the image

contours

 

Its mask when

pulled tightly

obstructs

and obscures

 

Dimension

is tactile

with borders

in place

 

Where false

it is proven

deception

— refaced

 

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

  

Our Pathway

 

Freedom begins

with decision

Choice catalytic

when firm

 

Our pathway once cleared

by cognition

The fire

— of liberty burns

 

********

  

The Words Secure

 

Neither

the rapier

of sarcasm

Nor

the bludgeon

of invective

Can injure

my letters

— or damage my pen

 

**********

 

The Illusion Stopped

 

Time doesn’t run

— it only deceives

 

********

 

Awaiting A Savior

 

Why should I labor

trapped in these mines

Breathing this death

perdition refined

 

Why should I trust

that this is the way

Darkness before me

each step on the quay

 

Though I keep picking

through darkest of rock

The future escapes me

its door remains locked

 

Awaiting a savior

I struggle each day

Alone in this suffering

— my faith to betray

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)