I was twenty,

and you were nineteen

that day along the mall

When I heard a guitar

from deep inside

that round auditorium hall

Up on stage with legends

Son House, Muddy,

Johnny Winter too

A red haired, freckle faced,

blue eyed girl

commenced to sing the blues

You started with an apology

saying you were outclassed

and over matched

But once that voice

left your heart and flew

….in nothing did you lack

I followed you out

that afternoon

in the late State College Fall

And after fifty years of looking back

every moment

I recall

I walked you to the bus

as you said:

“We’re in Harrisburg tonight

“Why don’t you come,

it might be fun

from there I catch a flight”

The bus was full,

my eyes looked south

as I hitchhiked down #322

Fate unexplained

life forever changed

—that special gift from you

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2018)

Where science ends

   poetry begins

The wonder of it all

—questioned again

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

Silence often defines the verse

its music between the notes

The freedom to breathe, the moment to grow

fertility bespoke

Space may be perfect with nothing penned

to fill or then divide

Quiet and silence never the same

—true emptiness sublime

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2018)

Do you need to open your eyes

   to see?

Do you need to have the words spoken

   to hear?

Do you need to pierce beneath the skin

   to feel?

Do you need to first understand

—to love?

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

No matter how often you

  bandage a lie

The truth bleeds

—through and through

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

Using words

only borrowed

—but not owned

Wearing clothes

stolen from a Mime

—not my own

I placed a token

metaphor

inside a pictureless frame

Giving you everything

but love

   —time and again

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

If you can take your own

breath away

   —and then the breath of others

You will live in a world of

magic and dreams

—with the shortest pathway home

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

Shrinking immortality into

the moment

Ignoring the impostors

future and past

Inhaling eternity’s thunder

   with every breath

Breathing out

—fire and rain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

Are those thoughts you put in

what I once valued more

Or would what I put out

be the end winning score

Did I need your ears

for my voice to become whole

Or would I rather them deafened

words deep in my soul

In my twenties your opinion

carried some weight

In my thirties I listened

but asked you to wait

In my forties I turned

and walked slowly away

Now alone in the twilight

—to carry the day

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

 All males undone

by the Lady Son

The trumpets blared

her fire

An Earl first came

her wrath unchained

To Charles

her heart aspired

All kingdom come

to face Lady Son

But to hell

their souls were laid

As her legend grew

and from banners flew

The name Joan

—all hearts to pray

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)