My Grandfather was a Poet,

my Father was a thief

 

Their spirits fight to own my soul

—my Son in cradle sleeps

 

My Grandfather spoke of beauty,

my Father spoke of sin

 

The truth now locked within a voice

—whose key I leave to him

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

Do three dimensions,

preclude a fourth

 

Does pointing toward South,

prevent being North

 

Is now just the midpoint,

between future and past

 

Does the freedom to choose,

leave all nature aghast

 

Is one and one two,

if one is in doubt

 

Are the whole or its parts,

what this world is about

 

Are Creation and Physics,

at war with themselves

 

Is Divinity chosen

—willed unto one self

 

(Saint David’s Pennsylvania: July, 2019)

 

 

 

 

In addition to the slogans…

“Save The Whales,”

“Save A Tree,”

and

“Save The Oceans”

 

We need a new one…

“Save A Poet”

 

(University Of Pennsylvania: July, 2019)

Choking on her

greatest asset,

America dying

from freedom abused

 

Twisting in the wind

a talonless eagle,

Her heart ripped open

—her power accused

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

Life’s journey through the darkest night,

whose final verse is clear

 

Temptation preying on itself

—all heaven for an ear

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

Breaking through the dialectic,

good and bad behind

 

Beyond to where the sky breaks clean,

and time does not apply

 

Escaping from the either/or,

my mind now free at last

 

Lost in the perpetual moment

—rules not hard or fast

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

Softly,

I leave you

 

Within the falling

rain

 

And take my leave,

the storms reprieve

 

Its tears

—to wash the pain

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

A scant twenty years,

grieved a century or more

 

Poetically perfect,

in spirit and lore

 

A man and his horse,

alone on the range

 

The cattle his instruments,

and music to play

 

Civil War veterans and blacks

from the South

 

Through dust and dark clouds,

snowy blizzards that mount

 

Together they battled,

in concert they fought

 

Each unto himself,

life’s harmony caught

 

The hardship and death,

to him worth the price

 

Pushing always ahead,

a stranger to fright

 

The only thing telling,

to be left at the end

 

Was the legend he gave us

  —and the message it sends

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

When I want to express anger,

I get madder than hell

 

When I want to give love,

how deep is my well

 

On those times that I covet,

how green I become

 

And when wrestling with hate,

the result zero-sum

 

When my face blushes red,

I wear it with pride

 

Excitement and fury,

then never to hide

 

These things at my core,

at your risk to defame

 

Like politics censored

—emotional correctness disclaimed

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2019)

Wishes for horses,

  beggars to ride

 

Hope cinches tightly

  —dreams that won’t die

 

(Cowboy Poetry Festival- Elko Nevada: 1992)