The Road

October 26, 2020 By John David Higham in poetry Leave a comment

Expansion joint by expansion joint
I keep finding myself here
I keep knowing myself here
Every time I'm behind my wheel

Everyone is no one here
No one is everyone here
Including me
In my steel glass rubber pod
Zipping or crawling
Watching the worlds pass
From sunrise to sunset

My windshield the observatory
To lives off disregarded exits
Stories of faith grit and hope
All magically fading
In my rear view mirror

Endless worlds lay ahead
The black snake-like serpent
That invites me to ride its back
Into remote corners of my soul
Past places with memories
Into worlds of my future

My little pod is always 
Moving
As the outside one is always
Evolving
Sparking my need to grow

Meditation chant CD
Playing, playing, playing
A mantra 
Accompanying the mandala
Mingling in the air
My pod moves aside

Voice recorder my co-pilot
My silent muse smiles at the scenery
Hanging onto my every word
Conveyed in verse ideas or dialogues

To be and to go
Simultaneously
In motion yet still
An alchemy of consciousness

It is here
On my road
That my dreams are born
My enemies bested
And my nightmares go lucid
So that I may tame 
My wildest beast within 

Today this road will pause
This traveler will rest
Tomorrow I shall find
Yet another journey 
To take down yet another road
Expansion joint by expansion joint


Copyright 2020 by John David Higham: All Rights Reserved

Horsemen Four

Horsemen four
Hoofs striking earth scorched
Unseen by the blind
Silent to the deaf
Undetected by the distracted

Who will have lion's courage
Or, elk's stamina
To stand firm
As their steeds
Charge 

Who will be owl
With me
To know all
Within darkness

Do Not Mourn the Day Lost

October 23, 2020 By John David Higham in poetry Tags: enlightenment, spirituality Leave a comment

This Day Passing (Skyline Drive, Williamsport)

Do not
Mourn the day lost
Or empty moments
Overrun by day dreaming
For they will yield to abundance
 
Do not
Hold the shame
Others have gifted
But return in kind
 
Do not
Fear a solitary path
For none are truly alone                                                               
 
Do not
Fear your darkness
Your failures or your pain
For everyone lives with these
 
Do not
Keep the company
Of fools unless
You need to be one
 
Do not
Profess to know
As you endeavor to learn
 
And always ask your
Self, “What is my role?”
And follow the answer
No matter where that leads
 
 
Copyright © 2020 by John David Higham: All Rights Reserved

They Who Stand

October 21, 2020 By John David Higham in poetry Leave a comment

they who stand
immersed in ignorance
clothed in hatred
stale with repetition

they are looking
far away with glazed eyes
spending each day
waiting for battle

walking streets
at day's end
doffing masks
flying banners 
sad ever after

no Oz
no man
no curtain
just despair

do without them
as long as you can
until you wake 
seeing only sun


copyright 2020 by john david higham (all rights reserved)

Desire Laid Bare

October 20, 2020 By John David Higham in poetry Tags: enlightenment, serenity Leave a comment

I want to go
Walking on the ocean
And feel
Waves crashing through my toes
As wind
Whistles through my soul
And salt
Cleanses my soiled flesh
 
I long to go
Swimming in the earth
Kissing worms
As they slide along my lips
While I
Dive toward the magma’s embrace
 
I yearn to go
Skyward as if dust scattering into clouds
And pulling up
Greenest grasses, tallest trees
With me
Birthing sunsets and rainbows
 
I desire to be
On water, land and sky that elusive lust
That transforms
Everyone it embraces into satiated
Lovers of life
Masters of their own evolution
 
 
Copyright © 2020 by John David Higham: All Rights Reserved

I, the Storm through Me

October 19, 2020 By John David Higham in poetry Tags: healing, trauma recovery, visions Leave a comment

Portal (Market Street Bridge, Williamsport: October 2020)

I, the storm through me
Destroying all 
Making darker darkest night
 
I, the inferno
Burning through me
I, the burning tree
I, the remaining ash
 
I, the love 
Coursing through me
Not mine, not sent
Though embraced
 
I call The Angels
They heed my calls
In ways you will never know
Rescuing you in ways
They prohibit me from sharing
 
I, the keeper of secrets
At times
I, the secret fool
At other times
 
I, this path
Few understand
When vision after vision
Come to pass
 
Long ago I, this path learned
Verdicts to be read
Judgments to be passed
Flowing through me
Though not of me
 
And, always (always, always)
I live the question
“What is my role?”
Voices, thoughts talking
Directing me
Allowing me 
I, this little boy
Deep inside
To smile.

 
Copyright © 2020 by John David Higham: All Rights Reserved

June 2, 2020 By John David Higham in poetry Leave a comment

That Moment (When Love Finds You)

May 5, 2020 By John David Higham in love, marriage, miracles, poetry, PTSD Recovery, recovery, relationships, romance Leave a comment

Moon, Roof, Spa 5 5 2020

Gotcha’, didn’t it?
Just when you thought all men were bastards
All women were petty bitches and c-words
And no one would really care for you

It found you deep within your trauma/self-pity/shame/depression
Buried so deep that your sun never shined there

Blew it all apart and made you so alive
Then every molecule of your night turned to our sun
Flowing through all those dead parts
From walking dead to walking love

Now we know that love is all that is
Everything seen through that rose lens
Forever tomorrows never ending
Happily so far beyond ever after

Hero (No More)

May 2, 2020 By John David Higham in poetry, PTSD Recovery, recovery Leave a comment

Sunset 5 1 2020

So much wanting all the right words
Knowing the right times to say them
Being The Teacher
The Father
The Guru

Knowing how to cheer the discouraged
Heal the wounded
Love the unloved

So badly I wanting
To be and never not to be
Everything to anyone
Being or feeling less than
Who I saw
Who I felt
In their possible futures
Traumatic pasts
And turbulent here and nows

Fool was I
Casting myself supine before them
Like pearls tossed before swine
So they may crush me with thick teeth
And betray me for ego’s ego sake

Fuck (oh, fuck)
Longing to make their hells
Into heavens
To turn their tears
Into rainbows
Fuck (oh, fuck me now)
So needing praise and admiration I
Instead of love I needed

Hero no more…

Time, R. I. P.

April 30, 2020 By John David Higham in personal growth, poetry, PTSD Recovery, serenity, spirituality Leave a comment

Hot Tub 4 29 30

I’ve been to that quiet place where time died
It crossing so suddenly over
Slipping through my fingers and my soul
Before the blackbird’s song ended

Knew its taste I did
Its passion stirring within me
So much I wanted to own it
Deep within my breast
And make it my new heart
Of endless sunny days
And forever paused sunsets
Such bookends to that wonderful feeling
Of falling so deeply in love

These days are the thousands
Such fires burning, carried deep within
Even as roses I cast upon time’s grave
Crossing so suddenly over
From red to black to dust

John David Higham

Empathic Perspective

Category Archives: poetry