Did you waste your life

  just making money

 

Did you eat the bread

  and not the honey

 

Did you sell your soul

  as your children watched

 

Was your heart left cold

  in a tinderbox

 

Were your excuses rich

  and your reasons poor

 

Did you wake up full

  and still ask for more

 

Were your blessings shunned,

  as you scratched and clawed

 

Saying: “No harm done,

  I never broke the law”

 

Were your teeth all straightened

  and your motives bent

 

Were your eyes detached

  from what heaven sent

 

Were your memories lost

  in some dead refrain

 

As a lonely footnote

  to another’s name

 

If you had one chance

  to re-right these wrongs

 

Would you hide in silence

  or break out in song

 

With your soul imprisoned,

  the choice is clear

 

All joy awaits

  —redemption near

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

 

 

The light of remembrance,

  the will’s DNA

 

Entombed by dementia

 —forever in shade

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Committing to joy,

 committing to moonbeams

 

Committing to hope,

 committing above

 

Committing to sorrow,

 committing forever

 

Committing to heartbreak

 —committing to love

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

The jaws sing

As the drip, drip, drip,

Of the petroleum chorus

Dances across

The inverted aluminum

And the hissing starts

And the hissing stays

Its smell a warning

A final omen

Like the last rose

Of summer

Or the fragrance she wore

For that final goodbye

The teeth tear inward

Like the regret for today

And the regret for yesterday

And the lament for tomorrow

Its promise broken

And your khakis red

And baptized

A stigmata

To self infliction

As the music plays constant

And the rushing you feel

An emptying of sorrow

Onto the crushed ceiling

Of a dream in reverse

Of all life in reverse

Until two arms grab you

And you fall from the sky

And you fall from the sky

Waiting

For the ground

To coronate the outcome

And for one more answer

To a ‘why’ unquestioned

And to love you one more time

But the lights are now dim

And the voices muffled

As an organ can be heard

And store bought flowers smelled

And an old woman cries…

As a young woman cries…

And a stranger pronounces

What you feared the most

They didn’t know you

And couldn’t know you

The exit sign flashing

But there is no door

“There Is No Door”

  —and then the music stops

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

 

 

Embracing the present,

  freeing the past

 

Abandoning the future

  —eternity’s mask

 

Seizing the moment,

  lies tumble and fall

 

Salvation perpetual

 —this instant and all

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Easily measured,

  not clearly defined

 

Often lamented,

  more often unkind

 

Its loss we all mourn,

  searching heaven to find

 

The time to become

  —a new past to rewind

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Your arms lift me up,

  as your words take me down

 

And I’m caught in-between

  your smile and frown

 

Your eyes making promises,

  your words yet to keep

 

My spirit in limbo,

  my heart left to weep

 

A soul now in turmoil,

  my mind double dealt

 

As your fear and your passion

  collide

 

What’s to be known,

  and what’s to be felt

 

Is it your words or your actions

  —that lie

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Certificate unsigned,

  pen firmly in hand

 

The bliss not for barter,

  its insight free-stands

 

Faith and acceptance

  may go where they please

 

To my grave and beyond,

  the verse teaches and frees

 

No savior I ask for,

  forgiveness I shun

 

Redemption for others,

  new ink on the run

 

Till one day uncovered,

  hidden deep on the shelf

 

A message unchristened,

   buried dark and unfelt

 

Where the voice I was gifted,

  and the music I heard

 

In themselves live forever

  —free unbaptized words

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

 

 

Writing in meter, ending in rhyme,

  the journey became clear

   —destination in mind

 

Writing in meter, ending in rhyme,

  my words tunneled inward

   —their meaning sublime

 

Writing in meter, ending in rhyme,

  free of the ramble

   —heartbeat aligned

 

 Writing in meter, ending in rhyme,

   the feeling immortal

    —remembered in time

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

 

 

Is God to interpret,

  and religion the why

 

Is forever too heavy

  to pledge bye and bye

 

Does the Devil provide balance

  to a concept in stone

 

Is he laughing inside us,

  mocking all that we know

 

Is the Lord left to children

   and those purest of heart

 

Is all truth chained to symbols,

  has its lock come apart

 

Are the years there to change us,

  is each day meant to count

 

Are the scriptures worth hearing,

  if belief has to shout

 

To those fanatics among us,

   yes, you know who you are

 

A power looms distant,

  beyond testament’s scar

 

Its claim staked by no one,

  its icon’s unseen

 

And its reckoning comes

  —when you wake from this dream

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)