Like wine in storage,
The cellar of my perception ages
Buried deep in its recesses
The past and future abandoned
—time no longer the vintner
Fermenting in the immediacy
Of the chosen instant
And distilling in the perfection
Of the perpetual present
—the moment reopens
Bringing with it everything
—and nothing at all
(Garrett Hill Pennsylvania: January, 2014)
Can men fight without symbols
where victory calls beyond love and hate
Can men die without symbols
or reason conquer the blindest faith
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2014)
Vindicta
The ends justify the means
—when the means entail revenge
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2014)
Sum = Zero
Totality expanded
The sum is now zero
Risk and certitude
—one and the same
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2014)
The past faded
as ideas came alive
Destroying with every thought
the status…
—of the status quo
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)
The light through
My Grandmother’s
Bedroom window
Called out to me
‘Calls out to me’
Leading me to places
Where I had to go
Revisiting me now
In my twilight years
‘In my twilight years’
Reminding me again
Of those places I’ve been
And my reasons for going
As the mileposts shone
‘And the mileposts shine’
Reaching into the distance
Where the horizon pulled
And the dawn arrived
In what drove me once
‘In what drives me still’
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2014)
When your art
Becomes divorced
From any end result
—you have arrived
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2014)
Living in a rented room
my thoughts became my own
Living in a rented room
my borrowed soul was owned
Living in a rented room
the fog began to lift
Living in a rented room
my spirit set adrift
Living in a rented room
the moment now the thing
Living in a rented room
—to me, myself I bring
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2014)
Learning should be an open meadow
and not a cave to hide
When coupled with experience
its lessons to abide
No degree or title, money or fame
will direct you toward the light
Life’s one great lesson—living free
the academic’s plight
(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2018)
A window framed with memory
emits the brightest light
Its lock and hasp long since removed
a journeyman’s delight
Casting off the millstone
the rock of age has come
Where darkness hides beyond the sash
—inside a rising sun
(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2018)
If you never loved me,
would life be easier
would life be better
If you never loved me,
would you have emptiness
instead of joy and pain
If you never loved me,
would moments vanish
as wishes drag through the years
If you never loved me,
would your heart be orphaned
—by a choice never made
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2014)
An Anthology Of Perception 