The Proffer (+4)

Religions survive

  through subjugation

Without it,

  they are lost

Wielding guilt as a weapon,

  they proffer salvation

Enlightenment and freedom

  —their cost

 (Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: May, 2019)

To Never Explain

Within every verse,

  many meanings reside

The reader determines

  in which couplet you hide

The words both descriptive

  with colors aglow

The eyes as important

  as what the ears know

When backed in a corner,

  don’t ever explain

Words beckon discovery,

  refusing one name

The same reader may leave

  with a differing view

Each time he goes over

  and finds something new

A question once opened

  can never be closed

And verse penned inherent

   forever to know

With time of no consequence,

  your poetry waits

For the next searching pilgrim

  —your words to relate

(Rosemont Pennsylvania: May, 2019)

In Charge Of The Night

Being close to the right thing

Is farther from the right thing

Than the wrong thing is from

Being right

To see and not believe

To look and not touch

Much better to be blind

 —and in charge of the night

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2019)

One's Own Breath

The joy in the writing,

  all reading to construe

Spoken loud with one’s own breath

  —a vanity so true

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

Wishes Still To Pray

Are they waiting for me patient,

 as I’m caught up in the game

Are they counting down the moments,

 till I breathe my last refrain

Do they wonder why I dawdle,

 with an opening so wide

Do excuses stoop to waddle,

 as my tardiness contrives

Is that light beyond my tunnel,

 to burn forever long

Is the torch that lights my funeral,

 one to mark and count upon

What now keeps me in this moment,

 as new paths have cleared away

Is it something that I haven’t said

 —or wishes still to pray

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)