Tuning letters like strings

the words are reformed

The rhyme and the meter

the rhythm reborn

Each vowel and each consonant

together in line

No commas or periods

to block or confine

The meaning inherent

and left unexplained

restated once over

a blinding refrain

To put in the file

the future in bold

the verses in couplets

—the reading on hold

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

I deleted another poem tonight

and the Muse raged into fury

“You never asked for my permission” she said,

as her voice thundered deeply inside

“You’ll pay for this in sleepless hours

and nights when dreams are truant…”

Her promises kept, my nights defiled,

and days drag on untethered

As I write yet another “I’m sorry” to her

in verse both coarse and dry

(The New Room: May, 2022)

Staring defiant

into the blind eye of fate

the winds of circumstance

early not late

Staring back angry

its other eye blinked

as clouds blew misfortune

too close to the brink

I reached for my inkwell

I dipped in my pen

my final last script

to enoble the end

With one word I started

whose epistle came fast

to carry me onward

—goodbye was my last

(The New Room: May, 2022)

How do you play a melody

deep inside the words

to sing each letter off the page

and free them like a bird

How do you write the lyrics

to a mute and silent song

that lives inside the spaces

where true music’s never gone

How do you play a rhapsody

of couplets in your mind

releasing subject-verbs to be

forever to unwind

How do you pen a chorus heard

with what the verse has shown

and give each note a deaf refrain

—within a single poem

(The New Room: May, 2022)

When death sent out its calling card

the heavens came in view

Psalms to reach the Angel’s ears

one voice had broken through

Grace within her every word

each feeling soul infused

Patsy singing from above

—to bless the chosen few

(Remembering Patsy Cline: May, 2022)

Rest assured in the knowledge you are

—without having to know why

(Dreansleep: May, 2022)

Loneliness visits

when stranded alone

Confirming the emptiness

—lost to bemoan

The darker the moment

the thicker it spreads

To lie and to cover

—my spirit in dread

It blocks every motion

I make to get out

Its shroud to enshadow

—within and without

As somber it tenants

it knows all the while

Its life but a memory

—the moment you smile

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Ten siblings

though an only child

Divorced fraternal

 bastardis wild

Ten reminders

of what I’m not

Isolated

 dropped not caught

Ten siblings

that share my name

Whose backs have turned

with eyes that blame

Regret incessant

to live outside

This name a prison

—wherein I hide

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

I knew it long before the end

my affairs to order fast

The days once promised now recalled

my future is my past

Each day times ten the countdown on

as memory wanders back

Tomorrow once was like the stars

 that time would not attack

Into this funk I drift away

each phrase might be my last

The river calling out to me

the falls my soul’s repast

With T’s all crossed and dotted I’s

I hear the trumpet blow

and carried on a distant wind

—into the fates I go

(The New Room: May, 2022)

Reaching for the universe

 fate extends a hand

Shortcut to Andromeda

  route at its command

The speed of light exceeded

all flashes turn inside

To burn and bend eternal

where life no longer dies

Each star laid out before me

 whose orbits spin and weave

Their presence all revealing

what black holes can’t retrieve

Inside there are no limits

or borders to constrain

The words forever calling

in voices—time reclaimed

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)