Innocent tonight

— guilt waits with the dawn

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

In a fantasyland

of their own creation

politicians spawn

Spreading their eggs of division

and lies

among bottom feeding pawns

 

Propagating treason

corruption and graft

to freely flow downstream

Carrying our destiny

over the falls

— of shattered broken dreams

 

(The New Room: February, 2024)

Life’s meandering journey …

mapped by a fool

Clairvoyant foretelling

the dilettante’s tool

Around every corner

the road twists and bends

A marble or diamond

— but choice to portend

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Present Unwrapped

 

Plan for tomorrow

live for today

the moment redeeming

 future caches

 

Say what you mean

do what you say

the circle enclosing

— truth on display

 

 (Dreamsleep: February, 2024) 

 

Palace Rules

 

No worse enemy

than an ex-friend

No better friend

— than an enemy turned

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024) 

 

 

 Empty Promises

 

Caring not much

for what I haven’t seen

Deaf to those voices

still trapped in between

 

Caring not much

for what I haven’t been

Each promise stays empty

— not kept from within

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024) 

 

 

 White Buffalo

 

Can you …

Know

without thinking  

Win

without beating

See

without judging

Cry

without pain

Speak

without stricture

Come

without staying

Wish

without hoping

Share

without claim

Hear

without language

Curse

without malice

Hunt

without preying

Rule

without reign

Fly

without plumage

Dance

without music

Love

without taking

Die

— without shame

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024) 

 

 

 

 

Left To Wander

 

Confusion’s underbelly

frustration’s embryo

Orphaned seeds of black and white

spread where nothing grows

Choices wander celibate

new pregnancy unfound

Up or down left to right

— dubiety impounds

 

(The New Room: February, 2024)

 

Incognito

 

Thinking the worst

of people

life has cast a pall

 

To cover my

intentions

— and camouflage the fall

 

(Dreamsdleep: February, 2024)

 

 

Warring Words

 

Poets

are the bravest  

writers …

you know who you are

 

Scattered

among

the Johnny Come Latelys

battered up and scarred

 

Each word

proffered

born of pain

raised in discontent

 

Dying once

to live again

unwilling

— to relent

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

Winning

 

First and foremost

success is an

entrepreneurial venture

— not a management exercise

 

(To Dartmouth Students: January, 2012)

 

 

 

 

Casting Off The Bow Line

 

Goodbye

my unwed darling

I’m married

to this dream

 

Freedom

calling out to me

betrothal thus

redeemed

 

Bachelorhood

a Siren’s calling

Feted tween

the sails

 

Truant winds

to act upon

Legends

tell the tale

 

Setting off

this final time

Rudder

in my hand

 

Truth when hoisted

up the mast

Liberty

— commands

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

So Imbued

 

Crime without sanction

honor among thieves

Tomatoes tomattos

prudish obscene

 

Rules as their written

intention entwined

Good becomes bad

sight becomes blind

 

Credence engendered

by those so imbued

A prince or a pauper

depends on your view

 

The world in a tailspin

no two think the same

the baby the bathwater

— praising the blame 

 

(The New Room: February, 2024)

 

 

Time Awaits

 

Not connected to

the dollar

 

Courted

never wed

 

Engaged to no one

but himself

 

Making

his own bed

 

All fame and fortune

lost to fate

 

Constancy

of mind

 

Whose future readers

time awaits

 

His legacy

— to find

 

(The New Room: February, 2024)

 

 

 

 

When faith is abandoned

we live on old dreams

In time captured wastelands

barren demeaned

Believing the tattler

and spinner of lies

Desperation is sainted

epistles decry

 

“Music plays in keys of pain

shouting from below

Missals singed in pagan fire

ashes still aglow

Caught out on a bridge alone

burning from both ends

Martyred in our heresy

— darkness to befriend”

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

From The Coal Mine …

 

Liars …

 early prophets

 of impending doom

 

(The New Room: February, 2024)

 

 

The Moment Shared

 

We often forget

wrapped up

in our own drama

— that everyone feels the same

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

 

Circle Game

 

The purpose of war

is peace

The guarantor of peace

— is war

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

 

Crucibles

 

Moss

hides the message

Whose altar

ascends

In joy’s

adulation

The pilgrimage

— ends

 

(1^st Book Of Prayers: February, 2024)

 

 

 

I Bequeath Thee …

 

Birthing a memory

 o’er future and past

To carry my words

inside others to last

 

Birthing a memory

o’er time and space

To those still unborn

— my welcoming grace

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

 

Four Steps

 

Incinerate

all kindling that burns

Articulate

the knowledge that yearns

Reciprocate

before it’s your turn

Elucidate

— each lesson hard earned

 

(The New Room: February, 2024)

 

 

True Fortune

 

Good health is loaned

— but never owned

 

(Deamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

Conation

 

Have you tilted the axis

on a new tomorrow

Have you changed with intention

— the direction of time

 

(The New Room: February, 2024)

 

 

 Round Peg — Square Holes

 

The poetry of mathematics

— oxymoronic at best

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

 Robert The Bruce

 

War is won

before the first battle fought

Willful intention

the enemy caught

 

Decision a crossbow

empowered by choice

The spirit retracting

— a conquering voice

 

(Stonehenge: March, 1987)

 

 

Apate

 

Captive of emotion

— prisoner of deceit

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

Crossing Over

 

Attending his own funeral

no tears were exchanged

No grieving or mourning

— but memory remained

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

In Memoriam

 

People won’t remember you

because of your money

The human spirit bereft

by your dollars in vain

History won’t revere you

because of your tokens

Your legacy built upon

— prescience ordained

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

Blood Trail

 

Don’t get sucked into choosing

both sides are bad

The Left or the Right

their massages sad

 

The Right tries to promise

what Leftist’s sublate

Two sides to a trap

— where lies are the bait

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

“What Simple Folk Do …”

 

Only inside ordinary things

is the extraordinary released

Baptized new day after day

eternity unleashed

 

Only by embracing what’s common amongst us

as Arthur knew so well

Can we move on to where it starts

beyond heaven — beyond hell

 

(Memories Of Camelot: February, 2024)

 

 

Making Our Bed

 

The silence of death

lives in the future

Sleeping with memories

— of yesterday’s past

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

Rays Of Light

 

Information contextual

never absolute

Naked in isolation

relative and moot

 

Inspiration celestial

gifted from the throne

Sending rays to light the dark

— truth to stand alone

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

Science

 

One step

forward

two steps back

 

Look around

you

see the facts

 

Sky scraped

cities

health care gods

 

Obese

on drugs

gender fog

 

Ghetto

masters

children stoned

 

War

a plaything

religion owned

 

Information

but a mask

to hide us from the truth

 

DNA

and quantum theory

— kills the Golden Goose

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

Dreamsleep

 

No words into boxes

all Muses set free

Not quatrain or sonnet

or limerick for me

The feeling’s unleashing

the verse as decreed

Whose words birth inside me

— unspoken in dreams

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

 

 

Feelings

 

They come to

me vacant

 

No plans

to deceive

 

In silence

they wait

 

My words

— to conceive

 

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)