Easier to know others

than knowing myself

Sentience numbing

what in a stranger is felt

Easier to reach out

than to look deep inside

This painfully obvious

—cognition’s divide  

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2023)

Call me darling

but never darlin

Call me lovely

but never cute

Call me warmly

from the snow bank

Call me your

forbidden fruit

 

Call me restless

dreams on fire

Call me once

when twice won’t do

Call my name

into the darkness

Call me

—as I wait for you

 

(Villanova University: September, 2023)

Raging against tomorrow

blaming yesterday

Running in place—admonishing grace

denial on display

Cursing the past indentured

the future waits in vain

No place to hide—the truth inside

the moment left unnamed

 

(The New Room: September, 2023)

Silver lining happiness

though there

not often seen

In many shades of inference

ignoring red

and green

Slight handed and implicit

though felt

still out of view

Beneath the veil resplendent

and known …

to only you

 

(Haverford College: September, 2023)

The older the day
the sweeter the memory

The sweeter the memory
new reasons to find

New reasons to find
tomorrow unmentioned

Tomorrow unmentioned
—the present Divine

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2018)

I’m on my fourth lifeline

how about you

The first three pre-owned

the current one new

This one seems fleeting

which gives me concern

My freezer is empty

no steaks left to burn

The first one was blissful

the second had pain

The third one reflective

but this fourth one again….

I try to hold on

and describe it at will

Exceeding my grasp

it alludes me and still…

I wouldn’t go back

to either one, two, or three

The things I see now

ripened fruit on my tree

If this is the end

and the lights start to dim

I’ll sing the words strongly

Madonna’s last hymn…

“More thankful than troubled

more joyous than sad

“More today than tomorrow

—the past in the past”

 

(The First Book Of Prayers: February, 2018)

Trying to write a lyric

my words reduce to verse

The euphony escaping me

adrift as I converse

 

Though joy is sorely tempered

these letters soldier on

In hope of just one melody

—in hope of just one song

 

(Bryn Mawr College: September, 2023)

I think like a Buddhist

but pray like a nun

 

I see like the mountain

but reach like the sun

 

I stand like Gibraltar

but rage like the sea

 

And love like a child

—reborn unto Thee

 

(First Book Of Prayers: May, 2017)

Laura returned in a dream tonight

to remind me of who I was

Leading me toward a waxing moon

she sang of hope and love

Pulling me close she kissed my lips

as her breath refilled my soul

Giving me back unto myself

—with a joy that time had stole

 

( To My Muse — Laura Nyro: September, 2023)

Academicians …

masticating and

 grinding their ‘truth’

Spewing out

what they would have us swallow

in gagging choking egotism

Regurgitating it back

in the toxic chunder

of a narcissistic reality

Papering the walls

of modern thought

with the bibs of their retching

As they hide within

their ivory towers

—festering in mass

 

(St. David’s Pennsylvania: September, 2023)