Idealism
versus
reality
In hope
that Quixote
prevails
Disappointed
again
reading the trends
Materiality
draining
the grail
Peer pressure
determines
what happens
Not some
high minded
value or tome
Greediness trumps
what our virtue
holds dear
Self interest
hitting
— closer to home
(Villanova University: January, 2024)
You can’t
embrace reality
forever
Its tenets
restrict
and constrain
By definition
it renames
itself
Once spoken
to then be
disclaimed
What comes
upon you
the moment laced
Where vacuums
exit
in time and space
Regenerates
from life’s
cocoon
In endless
cycles
— moon to moon
(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)
Without
your heart
open
emotion unspun
Without
the right feeling
the words
lie unsung
Without
the right words
the
verse to abate
The reader
in Limbo
awaiting
—his fate
(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)
Intelligence
a number …
never a word
The writer
a halfwit
till viscerally heard
Tomato
tomatto
the pudding unproved
Empirical
nonsense
— the spirit unmoved
(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)
Naivete
in life
brings terror
to dreams
The psyche
wide open
a victim
to scheme
The innocent
notion
belief
to defile
Asleep
in the
nursery
—where monsters run wild
(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)
Does worry only exist
in our memory
Or is foresight
required to fret
Will a bear live in fear
of the hunter
Or ignore what
might happen unmet
When alarm bells go off
in the moment
Rejecting the
future and past
Is time at its essence
but present
All reference
— a rationalist caste
(The New Room: January, 2024)
Once she performed it
she made it her own
With joy we all listened
and marveled atoned
Endowed from the heavens
the Angels in awe
Her spirit celestial
your nerve endings raw
A voice for all seasons
Grand Madam of sound
To search for a lifetime
her like never found
While crossing each genre
she made time a slave
Her stylings eternal
— a gift heaven gave
(For Aretha Franklin: January, 2024)
Living in one
renting the other
Owning them both
then to discover
As owner I’m captive
the tenant is free
In debt to the banker
—remortgaging me
(The New Room: January, 2024)
Alone
in my boyhood
the adult awaits
impatient indulgence
the year growing late
The woods
and the forest
refuse to let go
my spirit within them
the man to forego
Parents
and teachers
left counting the days
as wonder and whimsy
hold on and delay
The moment
I falter
the day that I fall
that boy left to wander
— where time never calls
(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)
Sometimes
it’s a very good idea
to cry
Sometimes
hello the opening act
of goodbye
Sometimes
what you think about
is not what you know
Sometimes
the reason to come
the best reason to go
Sometimes
when cresting the hill
the view doesn’t change
Sometimes
when cresting the hill
your destiny claimed
Sometimes
when music enthralls
the poetry flows
Sometimes
when music enthralls
there’s nothing to sow
Sometimes
a wish in the wind
beats two in the well
Sometimes
the harder we pray
the closer to hell
Sometimes
just what you ask for
is just what you’ll get
Sometimes
when hope has been lost
— it’s best to forget
(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)
An Anthology Of Perception 