Can you separate your art
from your politics
Can you separate the temporal
from the divine
Can you separate the excuses
from the reasons
Can you separate purpose
from those wasted times
Can you separate your vocation
and avocation
Can you separate curiosity
from true insight
Can you separate your duty
from convenience
Can you separate the darkness
—from the light
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
Choking on its wealth…
America now suffers
The Acid Reflux
Of a life at ease
Suffering poor health…
A country now drifting
Into the coma of denial
—and no longer free
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
Social Media….
the web we are all caught in
Waiting for the spider’s bite
—and our venomous end
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
To change one word and rock the world
a new verse dancing free
Its weight unmeasured, breadth untold
whose key unlocks the dream
The bottle open, the genie gone
last domino to fall
One word pulled out or inserted in
—new meaning to enthrall
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
Are we truly masters
of the word
Are we really in charge
of what gets heard
Are we truly finished
at periods end
Are we really past the point
of starting again
Are we truly out of sync
or out of time
Are we really tired
of questioning why
Are we truly silent
if that next breath comes
Are we really alone
—when the ink still runs
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
In the darkest final hours,
I began to write
And my words now spoken new
from scattered ashes light the sky
To begin and end each day
caught up in beauty’s distant wake
All loneliness filled by pages lined
with happiness and joy
My fate betrothed, once mistress
scorned
—a lover more than wife
Whose vision so much sharper,
her dissection cuts through bone
To slay the muted dragon’s fire
in present elocution
Beyond all past and future clouds
above the darkening storm
To live each breath and gifted word
that heaven sends pristine
Never destitute in blessings shown
—or in things I wish I’d said
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
Only one thing calls out to heart, body,
and mind
Causing seas to part—where yourself you will
find
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
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)
