Do you spend twenty percent of your time
acquiring your beliefs
And eighty percent of your time
in defense
Do you have blinders on
about what you conceive
In fear of the critics
pretense
Are your views narrow focused
and then watered down
As the truth disavowed
slips away
Is your memory tainted
in times left to waste
As your efforts
—retreat in dismay
(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2019)
The Answers Rebuffed
Can you own the present,
while renting the past
Can you steal back the truth,
from the future at last
Will the reasoned excuse,
ever be reason enough
For all questions to merge
—with the answers rebuffed
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
The Cloak Of Forgiveness
With death on the floor,
he tried to hang up his salvation
But the coat hook to eternity
was full
The closet door to redemption,
locked from the inside
The cloak of forgiveness
—for someone else to wear
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
One Question
The beginning of all beginnings,
the end of all ends
—one question in-between
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Centered Return
Memory of light,
vision of God
Centered return
—orbit of love
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Thy Lord
Where fixes the point of no return,
fixes the point assured
Where fixes the point of no return
—it’s there you’ll find thy Lord
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Threads
The tailored line,
bespoken Poet
With needle sharp,
to hem and sew it
Where thoughts as threads,
stitch out as whole
Whose words once seamed
—contain my soul
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Scorched And Burned
Seventeen children
on a highway to hell
Thumbs out—noses down,
perdition rings their bell
Seventeen children,
their backs now fully turned
The piper calls them blindly
—their futures scorched and burned
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
New Space
It’s those desolate interludes
that create the new space
For our souls to exhale
—and our dreams to escape
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
The Mask
Do you synthesize your anger,
do you cauterize the burn
Do you anesthetize the wonder,
as your dreams are drugged and scorned
Is your judgment tempered badly,
with emotion fiery hot
Is your vision colored madly,
by your choices—sold and bought
Does your music play reclusive,
do your words fall off the page
Does ego kill your last excuse
—that mask you can’t explain
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Last Verse
I never chose to live among you,
and choose to die alone
My thoughts in writing here beside me
—last verse my ticket home
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)