Why Must Some Narrow the Margins?
		

		Why must some narrow the margins
		Shutting off light to their minds
		When in fact the universe is ever expanding
		Suns not setting in a sea of starlight
		This life's ever broadening horizons
		Beyond which life is growing
		Sprouting anew, literally bursting
		At the seams, it seems
		Sad to turn away from the Glory
		Of creation and stare, silhouetted
		Into the mouth of the cave--
		Do you hope to build a fire
		And watch the shadows grow
		On the walls of your life?
		Illusion is no replacement for reality
		Madness the doppleganger of sanity
		Tyrannically rules out all hope
		As self-doubt destroys self-worth
		And makes Howard Roark no architect.

		
		
		It Dawned On Me Slowly
		

		It dawned on me slowly
		The light growing ever brighter
		The warmth starting in the air,
		Touching the skin, then deepening
		Until it filled my body.
		I,
		Now I know.
		Blooming lotus floating on the face of the water, serene.

		
		
		Tufnell Park, University of London
		

		For us Americans,
		Travelling overseas for the first time
		As students of the world,
		Trying to learn, to study life
		And learn a new philosophy,
		Expand the world, see the human race
		In all its diversity, in all its Red Light perversities,
		It's more than ironic that we found
		New Orleans jazz in a corner pub
		With some Irish friends deep in the heart of London
		Where cultures blend like an Imperial echo
		Preserving both the beauty and the horror
		Of lost days of old, so that
		Tufnell Park was tough as nails
		As hard as the rocks and curses
		Thrown through its windows
		By the park-loitering British urchins
		At the ugly Graham Greene Americans,
		Cutting the students' heads,
		Grazing our brains,
		Blasting us in the face
		        With knowledge,
		                With life,
		                        With experience.