Up Or Down

Unchallenged,

  we have nowhere to go

    —but down

(Villanova University Campus: July, 2014)

 To Believe In Both

I can believe in you

  and not believe in your art

I can believe in your art

  and not believe in you

Wouldn’t it be nice

  —if I could believe in both

(Wayne Pennsylvania: July, 2014)

 The Bottom Line

What you get

  is not always

  what you choose

What you choose

  is not always

  what you want

(Bryn Mawr College: July, 2014)

Hiding inside the written page,

  reality slipped away

Buried inside a meaning deep,

  its wolves were kept at bay

With feelings ablaze, all answers were torched,

  a bonfire at the gate

New questions enshrined, false promises burned,

  with ash to mark the way

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)

Purity weds corruption

 —a marriage unrhymed

An Angel having fallen

  —damnation defined

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)

Between the lines

  you read my story

The pain I felt

  you washed in glory

New letters rose

  the words reformed

As Angel’s danced

  with time forlorn

On Satan’s grave

  a vesper bell

Salvation rings

  —all lies in hell

(Philadelphia Pennsylvania: June, 2014)

A man paints a picture

  outside on his teepee

A man writes a novel

  from inside his soul

Each message recorded

  to transcend the seasons

Eternity on notice

  —another black hole

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)

When the world turns

   on a whisper

Why do we insist on

  shouting

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)

For the lack of one letter,

  the word could not form

For the lack of one word,

  the entire sentence was wrong

For the lack of one sentence,

  the paragraph went astray

For the lack of one paragraph,

  the page lay undone

For the lack of one page,

  the chapter could not end

For the lack of one chapter,

  the book was now lost

For the lack of one book,

  its message unwritten

For the lack of one book

  —all promise was gone

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)

Trying to make the poetry prose

Or the prose poetic again

I insulted the meaning

With juxtaposition

Stabbing an idea

That should have been shot

Killing a verse

That should have been saved

Thinking the truth

While uttering a lie

Forming the words

  —unable to speak

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2014)

All of my life,

 I’ve been trying to hide

Drifting untethered

 roaming inside

All of my life,

 I have chosen to wait

Judging unholy

 making mistakes

All of my life,

 my arms have been short

The reach much too long

 as failure reports

All of my life,

 the truth insecure

My back to the light

  —the present unsure

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2014)

With ten more miles of wire

  my horse wants to turn back

There’s dark clouds over the mountain

  just a small tent in my sack

The fence line sits all busted

  from two bulls that went astray

They both missed being neutered

  last year on roundup day

My hands are cold and blistered

  that salve jar all but gone

Two wolves begin to howling

  that lonesome prairie song

The storm clouds now have thickened

  light pulls its covers back

Just one more night on the western slope

  —with eight miles left to track

   ‘From The ‘Searching For Crazy Horse Collection’”

          ‘Read In Elko Years Ago’