Looking out is different

  than looking back

 

Wishes get hardened

  with a backward glance

 

All hopes reversing

   with time exposed

 

The aspirant trail marked

  —by memory’s return

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

The earth cracked in Nepal

  with fire and shame

 

And thousands lay dead

  on the mountains and plains

 

Its crust was ripped open

  its heart now exposed

 

And lives were then claimed

  from a heaven deposed 

 

The story for mystics

  a legend say some

 

The day nature demanded

   for things that we’d done

 

Her climate infected

  her sky ringed in black

 

Our future as payment

   —with no turning back

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

 

Are you a sexual being

  if you choose to remain celibate

 

Are you famous or forgotten

  if you live in a cave

 

Are you democrat or republican

  if you’re never to vote

 

Are you black or white

  in the eyes of the blind

 

Are you young or old

  in the heart of a child

 

Are you rich or poor

  when everything’s gone

 

Are you healthy or sick

  when the gallows claim you

 

Are you guilty or innocent

  when the crime is absolved

 

Are you friend or foe

  as the last man to fall

 

Are you committed or unsure

  when the questions retract

 

Can you find what’s been hidden

  with the object removed

 

Can you cry out in silence

  when the noise overuns

 

Can you travel in place

  to unknown destinations

 

Can you swear to the Lord

  with all prophecy in doubt

 

Can you still love your children

  when no longer their father

 

Can you leapfrog all paradox

   —to find your way home

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

Thank you for the confusion Lord,

    thank you for the doubt

 

Thank you for those unsure moments

   when I could neither whisper nor shout

 

Thank you for the people Lord

    who loved me or hated in vain

 

But thank you most for the girl I wed

   —who took away my pain

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

      ‘From The Book Of Prayers’

Do all relationships

 come to an end?

 

Through death or disorder

 both stranger and friend

 

What life doesn’t alter

 does dying reclaim?

 

Alone in the vacuum

 —alone once again

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2019)

I most value today

 what I used to walk by

 

And stop to revisit

 what trailed from behind

 

Those moments once squandered

 when offered again

 

In joyous acceptance

 —I embrace from within

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2019)

 

 

 

 

I used to write early

  but now I write late

 

I used to seek love

  but now avoid hate

 

I used to be captive

  of what comes to be

 

Until time was destroyed

  —and its lies were set free

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

 

 

 

Could or couldn’t

Would or wouldn’t

Should or shouldn’t

Can’t or would not

 

Does or doesn’t

Was or wasn’t

Has or hasn’t

Can or cannot

 

Must or mustn’t

Have or haven’t

Are or aren’t

Is or is not

 

Did or didn’t

Had or hadn’t

Do or then don’t

 —you will or will not

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

I don’t care where I’m going

  I know where I am

 

I’m not worried about the future

  I’ve never been to the past

 

I’m not sad about what’s missing

  only joyful for what’s present

 

I am here and not there

  —and my words make it last

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

The winter wind was blowing

 through an autumn of despair

 

A reckoning was coming

 and now carried on the air

 

The winter wind was blowing

 as the leaves began to fall

 

Revealing what was waiting

  —buried deep in nature’s call

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2019)