In confessionals of doubt

he chased absolution

The devil unmasked

—his penance forsworn  

 

(Washington Chapel: November, 2021)

 

Too busy writing

to care if you listened

Space there before me,

live ink on the page

 

To say it just once

with no echo to follow

Questions—unanswered

endorsement prepaid

 

(The New Room: November, 2021)

He saw the world in burlesque,

light dancing upon the stage

The great blue fanning ocean

and rainbow colored pastie orbs

Caught between the music and the

shadow of the extreme

The curtain falling deftly marking

the beginning and the end

 

His dreams left to wander

search the darkness for a home

To strip off their makeup and surrender

what tomorrow will disdain

Where back in the footlights all chaos

 and disorder will bawdily remask

Teasing what fantasy hides in fear

—as an Angel sheds its wings

 

(The New Room: November, 2021)

Something you had never heard…

something you had always known

 

Something new yet something old…

something borrowed—something owned

 

(Dreamsleep: November, 2021)

Memory left drowning

betwixt and beyond

 floating discarded

on yesterday’s pond

 

The future is calling

in voices distressed

 reservoirs draining

tomorrow beset

 

The bridge crossing over

these waters is rough

its toll but the present

time never enough

 

The turnstile upon you,

its arm is still down

the cost what you’re leaving

its promise unfound

 

But once set in motion,

there’s no turning back

allusion receding

with blood in its tracks

 

All hail to the moment,

the instant supreme

whose motion internal

—all else but a dream

 

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

Behind the walls

of his fantasy

an actor played his role

dishonest in death

dishonest in life

 face like ashen coal

 

Taking the stage

left, center, and right

soliloquy to fawn

each pleading rehearsed

all truth in reverse

—footlights dark and gone

 

(Dreamsleep: Octopber, 2021)

Born fully human,

more fully Divine

 

Our Savior upon us,

existence sublime

 

The sum of three persons,

all persons as one

 

His love in the mystery

sent down from above

 

A choice beyond question,

its truth beyond fact

 

All faith in transcendence

—unsetting the trap

 

 

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

My poetry selfish,

a teacher I’m not,

my message once for saying

 

Instruction a tool

long missing and gone,

imagery not relaying

 

The ivory tower

a dungeon to me

where freedom goes to die

 

The wind in the willows,

a hawk on the wing

—my verse to course and fly

 

(The New Room: October, 2021)

 

A jazz musician

wonders back

to his days at the keyboard…

each note over practiced

until melody pure

and magic releases

 

A poet in laurels

wonders back

to his primers and notepads…

each word placed in order

until imagery calls

—and syntax digresses

 

(Villanova University: October, 2021)

Eenie, Meenie, Miny, Mo,

drums beat loud, a finger shows

 Tigers prowl within our reach

—on tippytoes our fate impeached

 

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)