You try to mask your given voice

in what’s perverse and then profane

 

But truth speaks only for itself,

your costume tattered—seamstress blamed

 

This great parade, a grand charade,

your song a flattened chord

 

Its final line to seal your fate

—perdition now assured

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

My reality secure

from the attacking winds

 

Sheltered by experience,

a fortress hard won

 

Neither fortune nor danger

can force their way in

 

All entrance is barred,

a mystery respun

 

An Eden contained,

in a legend foretold

 

Where peace and solitude

rekindle the light

 

Possessed of itself,

past-futures on hold

 

Its voice omnipresent

—to guide and delight

 

(Broomall Pennsylvania: August, 2019)

Speculation is to the truth

—as opinion is to belief

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

The inside looking out,

the outside looking in

 

Two sides of the same portal

—reality a twin

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

Youth takes my hand and holds me back,

as old age points the way

 

Unwilling yet to leave this Spring,

as Winter calls my name

 

The image in the mirror fresh,

the one my eyes now see

 

Of Lochinvar and Lancelot,

in dreamlike fantasy

 

The children see me older though,

their children older still

 

My spouse afraid I can’t accept,

what time and seasons will

 

I hold on tight to wings that splay,

o’er fields both green and gold

 

And shun the backstairs of my fate

—refusing to get old

 

(Trumbull Connecticut: February, 2017)

Mankind Alone

 

Reality…

humanity’s myth

 

(Des Moines Iowa: January, 1992)

 

 

 

Samsara

 

The music of the soul…

is truth

 

(Des Moines Iowa: January, 1992)

 

While not belonging anywhere,

beholden then to none

 

I spread me seeds upon the land,

and let my spirit run

 

I cast my lot into the air,

direction, fate be known

 

And far beyond prevailing winds

—my heart to rest atoned

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

With every religion…

to share in the blame

 

Masking out God,

in costumes of shame

 

Seeking to own

what they can’t understand

 

A covetous folly

—a heavenly sham

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2019)

When meaning becomes enslaved

by abstraction

—your Poem is lost

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

There’s a look…

That look

In a persons eyes,

When they’ve

Transcended

Nationality and race,

Social position

And wealth

 

In silent visits

They come to pray,

Their bodies

No longer

Controlling their spirit,

But that look,

That look

—remains

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)