Short Mawr Poems

What is… inherent,
what’s not… implied

Epiphanous moments
—waiting inside

(Bryn Mawr College: January, 2021)...

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Convincing myself of my own importance
  —I became an audience of one

(Bryn Mawr College: Pennsylvania: January, 2014)...

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Stepping over the line,
in pursuit of a song

Could a melody so right
—ever be so wrong

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: July, 2019)...

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If
“Condemned To Be Free”
as Sartre said,
Then 
doom me forever
—unchained and unled 

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: February, 2021)...

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Dawn spoke to the darkness
in its language of light

Delivering tomorrow
—from the deafening night

(Bryn Mawr College: July, 2021)...

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Living along the ledges,
  life is about the edges

The meaning sharpens and cuts
  —the higher you go

(Bryn Mawr College: August, 2014)...

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Epistemic Humility,
the world adjusts its crown

Reality filtered through the lens
of who looks, when, and how

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: February, 2020)...

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He burned the book on the second day,
its truth not till the third
but in between–his memory screamed,
forever to be heard

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: December, 2021)...

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Academic Immune Deficiency,
the intellect under attack

Those powered to know, ivory towers enthroned,
dialectic—its meaning hijacked

(Bryn Mawr College: January, 2020)...

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Fighting his very nature,
disagreeing with himself again

Feelings demand what thoughts now command
—leaving verse to make amends

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: September, 2019)...

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The imagery of experience,
the magic of verse

Each word bought and paid for
—to bless or to curse

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: 1971)
‘With Jerry Jeff Walker At The Main Point’...

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Religion has too many givens,
the takeaways few, far between

Questioning ravaged, intelligence savaged
—the mind left to wander and dream

(Bryn Mawr College: February, 2020)...

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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)...

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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)...

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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)...

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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)...

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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)...

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I’m wed to my Poetry,
betrothed to the fire

Each word an incendiary,
burned to inspire

My voice the rekindling,
fueling the scream

The ashes my trousseau 
—a smoldering dream

(Bryn Mawr College: January, 2020)...

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Being, becoming,
though different the same

All motion reflexive,
where time rules the game

Being, becoming,
whose vow is enforced

When married to both
—refusing divorce

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: February, 2021)...

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You climb up a mountain
for the beautiful view

Its challenge seductive,
a call to renew

The higher it takes you
the farther you see

With freedom the distance 
—that lies in between 

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: December, 2020)...

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Science…
 bastard child
of philosophy
and reason
formulaic delinquent
of an answer
in flux
Serving itself
as it shuns
its true
master
bowing down
to its 
tenets
the truth
—undiscussed

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: April, 2021)...

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Speaking with one voice
  the silence unsettled
As the many inside me
  cry out to be heard

Laced within my words
  never fluent themselves
Woven in my acceptance
  —their gift to inspire 

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: January, 2014)...

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To achieve a great victory,
you must forgive a great sin

Blood of the innocent,
death to begin

The voices of children,
our enemy’s shield

As bombs have no conscience
—till darkness to yield

(Bryn Mawr College: September, 2021)...

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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) 
...

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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)...

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