We’ve redefined God

Into someone

Who fits

His image

Our vision

His vision

Inconvenient

Alongside things

That won’t let go

His message untimely

With bills to pay

And concrete goddesses

To which we pray

  “a tail never tried to wag

   a bigger dog”

As we chant inside the

False rapture

Of our own

Becoming

Hiding from the very

Light

That promises

 —to show us the way

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

Thinking too much

feeling too little

 —your message shrinks and fades

 

Forgiving yourself

holding others in sin

 —a soul that can’t be saved

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

Not only did the words come,

  they brought their friends along

 

They pitched their tent—built their fire

  and began to sing their songs

 

The sparks flew as memory rose

  good tidings in the air

 

Phrases birthed, new families penned

 —brotherhood to share

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

Will the words come,

  will the words go

 

Are they forever,

  how do I know

 

What do I think,

  what do I feel

 

Memory escapes

  a spoke off the wheel

 

Written in blood

  spoken in rhyme

 

Forever to echo

  forever sublime

 

Daffodils scatter

  a wolf howls at bay

 

Nighttime has answered

  —I kneel and I pray

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

Present ordained

  past future in shame

 

The Poet and Jester

  as one

 

Living unclaimed

  free and unnamed

 

Archangel and Devil

  —undone

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

Sleeping with the Muse,

  my nights have grown short

 

Sleeping with the Muse,

  my spirit comports

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  words dance with delight

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  confronting my fright

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  her will tests again

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  not lover nor friend

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  my dreams sacrifice

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  all rest put on ice

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  the whispers come clean

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  excuses demeaned

 

Sleeping with the Muse,

  my spool is respun

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  divorced from the sun

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  in darkness I learn

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  the day will confirm

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  till dawn’s freeing light

 

Sleeping with the Muse

  —new words to take flight

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016) On-Line

The light burns brightest

  at journeys end

 

     “Radiant Epiphany

       Seraph’s descend”

 

Its blaze to enrapture

  the love that you give

 

     “Celestial applause

       for a life well lived”

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

If we were young men

  if we were strong

 

If we had fresh words

  to add to our song

 

If we were soldiers

  with war in our veins

 

If we were poets

  our voices reclaimed

 

If we were lovers

  of women that cried

 

If we went wandering

  our heart’s reapplied

 

If we were statesmen

  the world in our grasp

 

If we were sailors

  the wind at our backs

 

If we were farmers

  with meadows so green

 

If we were actors

  on stages supreme

 

If we were hunters

  new wolf on the prowl

 

If we were dreamers

  all wishes allowed

 

If we were young men

  still facing the sun

 

But alas, we are old

     —and darkness has come                 

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

The memory bitter

 —from the taste of love’s denial

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

A richness of words

  my legacy foretells

 

New questions to reason

  old mysteries dispelled

 

No breaths taken lightly

  or lines left undone

 

No memory forsaken

  last verse—zero sum

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)