My spirit will never truly die

  as words continue to give

 

My body once committed to sky

  my soul forever to live

 

Voices I’ve carried inside for so long

  now a chorus of octaves set free

 

The songs they sing from the heavens sent

  ever heartened, enchanted—decreed

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

My ancestors were all very simple men,

  so I could be more than that

 

They taught me early and taught me true

  what was special—and then to give back

 

These fathers now sit at my spiritual feast,

  true giants of a forthcoming age

 

And as I write down the words, I am reminded again

   —of the true meaning of being a Sage

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

The past and tomorrow

  —from today only borrow

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2018)

Music is more slave to fashion

  —than the written or spoken word

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

You can’t

Or you won’t…

The result is the same

 

The difference

Decision,

And it’s yours once again

 

You can’t

Or you won’t…

Chief excuse of the small

 

When you won’t

Then you can’t

  —and the won’t worst of all

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015

Unadulterated and pure

  the thoughts left my mind

 

Untrained and unschooled

  no restrictions to bind

 

The page below virgin

  as I lower my pen

 

A literary wanderer

  —starting over again

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

No one is going to grant you salvation

  until you try and save yourself

 

Nothing is going to award you redemption

  with cards from others dealt

 

No one is going to save your soul

  until you set your past on fire

 

And nothing is going to make you whole

   —until you proclaim the myth a liar

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

To write poetry on the battlefield…

  intrepid from the heart

 

Its words to cover scars and wounds

  grief peeling back like bark

 

Each verse fired like a rifle shot

  with bayonet attached

 

All volleys sharp and to the point

   the blood spilled—turning black

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

March

  brought me closer

  to the spoken word

 

March

  created thunder

  never before heard

 

March

  left forever its stamp

  and imprint

 

March

  so predacious

  April bleeding

     —in red ink

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)

 

I hide in the shadow

  of another’s fear

  so the voice may go away

 

And then left

  inside an orphan’s silence

  to recount every wordless day

 

To walk a path

  that another breaks

  under a dark forbidden sky

 

Crying those tears

  by another made

    —my pen bereft and dry

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)