It’s not the steps that you take

— but the footprints you leave

 

(Ithan Pennsylvania: January, 2024)

Ignored

by my children

Especially

my daughter

Taken

for granted

Taking

up space

 

Living

unnoticed

My pain

front and center

Checking

off boxes

That never

erase

 

Knowing

she loves me

More

now than ever

My face

a reminder

Of greatness

long past

 

My voice

the last vestige

Of songs

sung together

A melody

silenced

When first

—became last

 

(The New Room: January, 2024)

 

 

Morphing through

the decades

leaning on our pasts

 

Brian, Paul, Van, and I

still living

loose and fast

 

The words have

deeper meaning

 as melodies refrain

 

The end in view

but out of sight

—the magic preordained

 

(Saint David’s Pennsylvania: January, 2024)

I welcome the feeling

of leaving behind …

No Facebook, no Twitter

no Email to blind

 

Controlling the message

undigitized truth

My mind free of programs

my spirit induced

 

Where magic is whispered

no texting or bytes

Bespoken the voices

I hear in the night

 

My memory stays active

not stored in the Cloud

Rebooting what’s under

— enlightenment’s shroud

 

(The New Room: January, 2024)

We hope and we dream

for a world free of pain

but the rock of serenity

stays beyond our reach

A hug or a knife

a kiss or a gun 

bipolar reminders

confliction runs deep

Every minute and hour

the chase carries on

no safety in hiding

from that which we’re born

Till fate becomes blinded

and hits a dead end

eternity waiting

—the ending forewarned

 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Louis Armstrong …

a class by himself

Not Dixie or Jazz

but much deeper felt

Growing better with age

his music enthralls

If fourteen or forty

his melodies call

 

Both Ella and Ray

are seated out front

As Satchmo delivers

when others exeunt

 

Timelessly treasured

he’d broken the mold

Of what sound can measure

—and a smile can hold

 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

 

When I was a boy

this spring house was there

Open and running

with memories to share

 

When I was a boy

it sat in the field

Above rising water

indentured to yield

 

When I was a boy

its door opened wide

To capture my fantasy

dreams there to hide

 

No longer a boy

now buried and hidden  

My hopes and my wishes

—forever unbidden

 

(Converse Estate: December, 2023) 

Chasing the

stoke

waves growing larger

 

Weekend

 warriors

still on the beach

 

Destiny

calling

mortality daring

 

Odds

go to hell

above twenty feet

 

 The spray

to the

heavens

 

Dropping

into

the thunder

 

Darkness

envelops

one prayer to beseech

 

The sound

of a

monster

 

The

howl

of its fury

 

But nowhere

 on earth

—would I rather be

 

(California Surf: December, 2023)

Damn the nor’easter

hold the wheel steady

Waves from the Kraken

over the bow

Darkness ahead

charts plot the demon

Into the fury

—doubling down

 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Looking out

he took that step

intrepid

and risked it all

 

Faith to act

as his belay

one last piton

in the wall

 

Descent set free

in motion

a true heart

to guide him down

 

For love of life

and moments gone

belief once lost

—refound

 

(The New Room: December, 2023)