Sodom

in tatters

Gomorrah

is ash

L.A. lies

burning

New York

in the trash

 

Cowards

run rampant

Weakness

endeared

Our heritage

shattered

With traitors

— revered

 

(Inside The Fire: June, 2025)

With over forty

years apart

let’s pretend

it’s just a day

That time we’ve lost

and what it cost

to ignore

and look away

 

We can’t tunnel

through the heartache

but a bridge over

can be built

To put behind

those days unrhymed

with tomorrow

— yet unfelt

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

 

 

Complex topics

simple rhymes

Truth untangled

darkness shines

Terse in format

long on tone

Silence Christened

sin bemoans

 

Complex topics

simple rhymes

Said but once

forever chime

One breath frees

indentured words

Locked away

— in verse unheard

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

That gear to move forward

 is often reverse

The best choice of words

fortune hides in a curse

Our holiest blessing

an omen that warns

And friendship most sacred

in traitor’s reborn

Today frees tomorrow

once yesterday’s gone

Each phrase that escapes us

new words to a song

The time of the season

Fall Winter and Spring

A Summer of angels

— new devils will bring

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

 

In the back

of my mind

there’s a shadow

Covering

what’s never

 to be

 

In the back

of my mind

there’s a memory

Reminding

what’s dearest

to me

 

In the back

of my mind

there’s a longing

Driving

me constantly

on

 

In the back

of my mind

there’s a mantra

Repeating

its message

— in song

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

I learned many things from him …

 

That the trackless path

is gifted

to those

who believe

That the distance

between thoughts

can only be connected

by words

That the idea itself

 is worthless

without the thing

it expressed

That tomorrow

is no more important

than yesterday

or today

That the bullfighter

must never die

with the bull

still alive

That revolution

is the truest place

where death

is reborn

That real courage

is only measured

by the one

sorely lacking

That to love her once

is better

than to love

her again

That you must

when you must

until the bugles

have stopped

That worshipping

oneself

is life’s fatal

devotion

That the jungle

we chase

is the jungle

we live in

That the willingness

to say it

frees a willingness

to act

That each great new

adventure

begets a greater

new ending

That in the tears

of a stranger

bleeds the heart

— of a friend

 

(Key West: January, 1994)

 

 

The curse of the writer

woo’s angels and devils

Chasing the daylight

 far into the night

 

Each phrasing an omen

of hope or foreboding

With lines that entangle

— in lost delight

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)

There’s a lingering shadow

that follows us all

Counting each breath

each step till we fall

 

Its pall ever darkens

while just out of reach

Its voice heard to whisper

through mountain and beach

 

It sees every moment

both joyous and sad

Recording our journey

the good and the bad

 

And then on that day

when our fate meets the end

Its arms wrap around us

— our very last friend

 

(The New Room: June, 2025)

Through struggle

one can justify life

Losing the battle

enhances the view

Blood on the rails

all markings assured

Death as the prize

— recurring anew

 

(The New Room: June, 2025)

Writer’s write

Speaker’s speak 

(and never)

— the twain shall meet

 

(Ketchum Idaho: August, 1983)