Spoken Free (+4)

Flying off the written page,

words leave their script behind

An inked stained palette of regret,

dark figures to remind

Voices soaring up and up,

released in open air

Imprisoned verses spoken free

—eternity to share

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

Vitam Et Mortem

We are what we do;

we are what we say

As day becomes night,

and night becomes day

We are twice begotten;

we are twice betrayed

Forgiveness in hiding

—redemption misplayed

(West Philadelphia: February, 2020)

Words On The Run

Poetic intention,

hiding in Prose

Misplaced and misspoken,

as every Bard knows

A narrative run on,

words littered about

Neither beauty nor truth

—masked in self doubt

(Bryn Mawr College: February, 2020)  

Neither A Borrower Nor...

Collaborative Poetry…

give me a break

Words borrowed or lent,

the Muse to abate

What’s not in your memory,

what’s not in your soul

Can never be bartered, rented

—or sold

(Bryn Mawr College: February, 2020)

Darkness To Light

It wells up inside me,

but words will not come

 I reach for them desperate,

the mood zero sum

My insides are shaking,

all peace is recalled

The rumblings foreboding,

complacency falls

My mind is locked down,

 my speech has gone mute

Like a great locomotive,

the first word breaking through

The dozens that follow

keep me pinned to my chair

As voices I know

start consuming the air

My brain is on fire,

 my will starts to melt

Time sacrificial,

 what’s heard and then felt

My pen has unfrozen,

in timeless delight

Directing this journey

—from darkness to light

(Rosemont Pennsylvania: February, 2020)