Poems & Prayers

The poems in this section are about taking personal responsibility for bad behavior. 

Several poems are more abstract, describing various states of desperation or other psychological distress. The poem “Daymares” defines a daymare as a waking bad dream, made up of all the things we fear, the lies we believe in, our addictions, the bad things we do, and the evil that we have within us and do not admit to. “Split Differential” describes a search for some unspecified thing, possibly self-knowledge, and the frustration of being unable to find it. The speaker feels he is looking in the wrong places and that time is running out. “What’re You Gonna Do?” expresses the thoughts of a man who has turned 50. He thinks of what he has lost during the aging process, and wonders how he will adapt to all the unwelcome changes in his life. 

Several poems ask for God’s intervention after making a mistake or committing a sin. “Dream Team,” about how people’s honesty, frankness, conscience, and desires are so often at odds with one another, is followed by an untitled poem addressed to God that describes the conflict the speaker feels between working for heaven to manifest on earth and trying to get to heaven after his death.