Left just one chance
to gild the night
One kiss
—before you leave
8th Grade Poetry Contest
St Thomas Of Villanova Grade School
May, 1962
Left just one chance
to gild the night
One kiss
—before you leave
8th Grade Poetry Contest
St Thomas Of Villanova Grade School
May, 1962
On which side of the authority line
do you fall…
The pulpit,
The assembly line,
The suite down the hall
Who makes the decisions,
do you stand—do you kneel
Is it giving or receiving,
do you take—do you steal
How many horizons,
do your dreams fall behind
Are they distant—uncertain,
not in view to remind
Where your memories lie,
are your promises kept
Is the past now your future
—will the present forget
(Abbreviated)
Are Promises Kept
Where your memories lie,
are your promises kept
Is the past now your future
—will the present forget
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Do you demand my lies,
instead of the truth
Do you hem and sigh,
or stammer uncouth
Does the word unfiltered,
get trapped in your brain
Does the message uncovered,
wash down your drain
Does the time spent looking,
measure time well spent
Does the verbal unlocking,
pay your spiritual rent
Are the memories you wished for,
in the time you invest
Are the feelings you hoped for
—at your spirit’s behest
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Your say download
I say upload
Diametrically opposed
I look up
While you look down
The truth now juxtaposed
I step forward
You step back
Our choices thusly shown
I remember
You forget
—the difference mine to know
(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2019)
Is it a memory that pushes
the future away
As wishes embody our souls
Is it a promise that opens
and closes our hearts
All hope to then console
Is it a longing that reigns
over friendship now lost
Of times once sorely blest
Is it the searching for love
and the choice to believe
The stars at our behest
(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2019)
I don’t write sonnets,
or limerick verse
I don’t write haiku,
though often terse
I don’t write ballads,
or Horatian odes
I don’t write parables,
to self-implode
But I do write in rhythm,
and often in rhyme
With meaning that’s buried,
and metered in time
All verbal indenture,
I must disavow
For the meaning to rise
—when the fates do allow
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Be wary of that trap once set
—for yourself
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Borrow from a liar
—but steal from the truth
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
She stole your heart
without asking
—leaving only a dream to chase
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Poetry often answers
—a question never asked
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)