The last curtain came down
one evening at nine
its drapery falling
to signal ‘it’s time’
The theater dark
all stagehands have gone
alone in her presence
my final swan song
The exit door opens
a new crowd appears
applauding me onward
past laughter and tears
With one final bow
but never so sure
eternity clapping
— forever’s encore
(The Bryn Mawr Theater: August, 2025)
I said
what I had
to say
And did
what I had
to do
While asking
no one
to care
And seeking
nothing
from you
I went
where I had
to go
And saw
what I had
to see
To get
where I had
to get
And be
what I had
— to be
(Bryn Mawr College: June, 2025)
Not so much
a lie
with little
truth to tell
Not so much
goodbye
with greetings
gone to hell
Not so much
romance
with feelings
dead or pawned
Not so much
to dream
with sleep
— bereft and gone
(Bryn Mawr College: May, 2025)
Apology
not good enough
Intention
still to blame
The road to hell
left burning red
its deviance
in flames
Excuses
rolling off the tongue
with lie
compounding lie
A higher power
judgment bound
the devil
— in denial
(Bryn Mawr College: July, 2024)
I’m a poet devoid
of Cliff Notes
dissection
not my thing
Don’t ask me
to explain my words
I’d rather hum
and sing
Explication
penniless
in ghettos
of the word
Where vagrants
pull and tear apart
what only should
— be heard
(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: January, 2024)
Avoid needless
complexity
Say it
straight out
Frost and
then Hemingway
Set the rules
down
Between meaning
and verbiage
The idea
is king
Sharpen
the point
The message
— the thing
(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: January, 2024)
I have zero regard
for structure and form
if the words as written work
A poetic outlaw
to ruled acceptance
in search of what may lurk
Critics and enemies
seed the cloud
that overflows with spite
To rain upon
my chosen path
— of radical delight
(Bryn Mawr College: January, 2024)
Words are the enemy
till sparingly used
And weighted with meaning
beyond p’s and q’s
They serve to release us
with imagery plain
Expanding the message
—in pointed refrain
(Bryn Mawr College: November, 2023)
Trying to write a lyric
my words reduce to verse
The euphony escaping me
adrift as I converse
Though joy is sorely tempered
these letters soldier on
In hope of just one melody
—in hope of just one song
(Bryn Mawr College: September, 2023)
Man is predestined
to destroy his world
Consciously damning
‘free choice’ unfurled
An apex predator
upon himself
No rhyme or reason
or logic dealt
Self-destruction
his stock in trade
His nature foreign
to all else made
Killing his brothers
killing his sons
Shakespeare prescient
of what’s to come
Time irreverent
he never learns
What sets him free
his folly spurns
The clock is running
the hour late
His words now toxic
and filled with hate
And when it’s over
but one thing changed
A new world order
—with life reclaimed
(Bryn Mawr College: June, 2023)
Bigger than every stage
she commanded
Greater than the sum
of her parts
Braver than the men
who adored her
Sharper than the image
—that endures
(Tribute To Hepburn-Bryn Mawr College: May, 2023)
The power of poetry
to drive away love
A surrogate impostor
indentured above
Whether spoken or written
its message the same
All feelings imprisoned
in words that explain
When waxing poetic
the birds and the trees
Laughing not with you
but at you it seems
Intention enamored
from rhyme to blank verse
With hearts on the run
—and heaven to curse
(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: May, 2023)
Days weave together
as night tears at the seams
Light as it vanishes
deserting my dreams
The sun making promises
darkness reneges
The truth stays an orphan
that both will misgive
The rooster to signal
that devil’s retreat
Hope spawning a sunrise
where wishes beseech
All joy upon waking
released from the pall
The clock now a weapon
that hangs on the wall
In mutual exclusion
our psyches must live
A damned symbiosis
all take and no give
But hands will fall southward
the shadows reborn
This daydream a nightmare
—as twilight sojourns
(Bryn Mawr College: April, 2023)
Losing connections one by one …
my mind has drifted back
This moment caught within a cloud
the past sharp as a tack
I reminisce in present tense
new frames of reference gone
With that most recent going dim
but still—I hear that song
(Bryn Mawr Hospital: March, 2023)
In the Spring
memories blow like wind
through the corners of my soul
replacing the dark winter
which time has now beset
Playing its distant lute
change is thrust upon me
rebirthing what fall had rightly claimed
and buried in the past
Visions of dancing June bugs
they fervently surround me
mating my wonderment with joy
as summer waits untilled
The whirlwind dharma
that so haunts my dreams
left comatose and vacant
freeing me for what’s to come
—and what has always been
(Bryn Mawr College: March, 2023)
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