Short Haverford Poems

Capsules of time…
no beginning or end

The view from without,
the view from within

Defining the space,
transporting the hours

Moment by moment
—again and again

(Haverford College: October, 2020)...

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Do nothings
wth tenure
poseurs sublime

Their barrels
sit empty
coated
with lime

The space
they take up
much better off
closed

For those
they have
poisoned
— Hades to know  

(Haverford College: April, 2024)

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Stranded on the island
of your professed beliefs

Anchored in the promise
of a new tomorrow

Each wave a stark reminder
of the choices that you made

Your faith inside a bottle
—the tide unclear

(Haverford College: January, 2020)...

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Stalking every dream
calling me from sleep
A Yeti of the frozen night
I drove the pitons deep

Climbing over hope
belaying every wish
The tracks it leaves — perdition bound
  to wander in the mist

(Haverford Pennsylvania: May, 2024) 
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Everyone’s life is tragic,
but who calls out the score

The Jester or the Hangman,
the Undertaker sure

Everyone’s nights are haunted,
when sleeping with the Muse

Each dream a wanton barter
—your memories to lose

(Haverford Pennsylvania: May, 2020)...

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What you ask me to deny,
I in many ways affirm

The truth will not belie
what your apprehension spurns

Believing in myself
and the voice that speaks within

I cast new seeds into the air
—and beckon the four winds

(Haverford College: January, 2021)...

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Silver lining happiness
though there 
not often seen
In many shades of inference
ignoring red
and green
Slight handed and implicit
though felt
still out of view
Beneath the veil resplendent
and known …
to only you

(Haverford College: September, 2023)...

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With one pen in the inkwell,
eternity got wet

The words to dance and laugh and pray,
phrasing’s still unmet

With one pen in the inkwell,
the future kissed the past

The moments now, the moments then
—Siamese at last

(Haverford College: January, 2021)...

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Is morality an end point,
or a journey to begin

Are right and wrong just bookends placed,
or what then lies within

All Ethical persuasion,
to attain or just desire

Whose end result will never come
—enflamed without the fire

(Haverford Pennsylvania: July, 2019)...

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The finer you draw your measurements,
the further away you fall

Each number squared and time compared,
deafens out the call

Your techno-dialectic,
data piled upon itself

A trash heap at the deadest end
—where folly stacks unfelt

(Haverford Pennsylvania: July, 2019)...

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A painting will never love you back,
like a woman or a child

An opera may cause your heart to sing,
then leave you twice beguiled

Platonic zeal may fill the hours,
a pleasant interlude

But requited love will change your life
—and end your solitude

(Haverford Pennsylvania: September, 2020)...

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How do you balance
the kind and the cruel

The good and the bad
of life’s golden rule

As reason pulls tightly,
treason pulls back

Living in conflict,
together intact

Tragic, comedic,
while often as both

 Angels and Demons
commingle betrothed

A savior, destroyer,
calling our name

A garden of riches
—caught in the flames

(Haverford College: February, 2021)...

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I remember the day
you borrowed my pain
“Take it,” I told you
no need to explain

It’s shopworn and battered
each scar duly earned
Its weight a true burden
of prophecy spurned

Then when you’ve finished
the torture complete
Find a new soul
to will it discrete

But no matter what happens
or how much you cry
This loan is forever
—forever goodbye

(Haverford College: January, 2024) 
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