Blank verse

And blanker memories

My mind shouts

As feelings cry

Blood drains

An artery cut

The seasons flowing

  —stain never to dry

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

Night Guardian

 

A steward of memory

  —the caretaker of dreams

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

 

The Eagle Cries

 

A new American profile

   —the look of fear

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

 

 Its Treasure Calls

 

Nostrils fill with wood smoke

   a mountain spewing lies

 

Fifty miles up the trail,

  its legend waves goodbye

 

Lost Dutchman in my memory,

  the map no longer clear

 

While buried deep inside the truth

  —its treasure calling dear

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

  In Print

 

Truth outlasts memory

  —on the printed page

 

(Train to New Hampshire: March, 2014)

 

Once written,

 no longer in need of defense

 

Once spoken,

 no longer in need of repetition

 

Once embraced,

 no longer in need of approval

 

Once answered

  —no longer in need

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

Often,

Life’s greatest pleasure

  —is getting the pain to stop

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

Passion builds a home

  —that talent only visits

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

You hear the words calling,

  but what if they stop

 

What if the voice changes

  to cold what was hot

 

And it’s not yours at all

  but a squatter that hides

 

D.N.A. of its own

  new agenda of lies

 

Those messages before,

  were they gifts or on loan

 

Is the feast yours to eat,

  will meat stay on the bone

 

Will the Muse be unfaithful,
is divorce in the wind

 

Leaving words then unnamed

  —orphaned silent within

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

Not Before

 

Say what you will or wont

  but do as you pray

 

Bleed as you will in the night

  but carry the day

 

Take as your conscience directs

  but give all you can

 

Return when the fighting is done

   —but not before then

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

        A Final Amen

 

Through critical discussion

  he walked in the night

 

And passed all the doubters

  embracing their fright

 

After giving it once,

  he gave forever again

 

For that bigger than him

  —and that final amen

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

 

Never Act

 

Be what you are

  just don’t act like it

 

Be who you are

  —and never act at all

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

 

 

      The Answer

 

Did you die alive

  or did you live dead

 

The answer saying everything

  —meant to be said

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

 

 

       Faithful And Alone

 

Writing to no other standard

   but his own

 

He was forever faithful

  —and forever alone

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

 

Is there a balance

Between poetry and prose

Anymore than a balance

between these and those

 

Is there a balance

Between poetry and prose

Or maybe a marriage

Where ‘heaven only knows’

 

If there’s a balance

Between poetry and prose

Are there rules to be broken

Where anything goes

 

Or is the real balance

Between poetry and prose

Truth sitting on top

  —their twin pillars below

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)

 

 

The picture worth 1000 words

  is priced only one way

 

Its value screaming

  —until eyes close

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)