Tears are the Heart's Traces

…sometimes I release  emotional tears … others see it and are afraid to be near…they do not realize the tears are about them …

 from another chapter of  "Word Whisperer"... 
"Whispering Moon Beams"

Tears are the Heart's Traces

Tears... from these eyes will never be hidden

No mask of humiliation will cloak a sympathetic mind

Without shame... I’ll weep tears of merciful surrender

Pour out the empathy from a wounded but healing heart 

compassionately onto an unconscious world

Beware of those unwilling to expose 

the essence of their true nature

To shed tears intimately releases traces of the loving spirit within

To give love unconditionally is to love with eternal purpose

Flooding out empathy into a love deprived world …

©  Harlon Rivers  …All Rights Reserved

Love Moved On

a photo and poem by Harlon Rivers

City lights twinkle

Across the Meadowbrook Valley's moonlit sky

Starlight glistens from the ridge top

Of an ancient sacred wilderness mile

Impossible distant journey

Yet only an arms length away

As I view my town that’s been left behind,

Emotions overwhelm this heart

Traces of past memories

Flood these forlorn sleepless eyes

A heart that has been broken knows

Only love will break your heart

Born and raised in humility

Crucified by years of peer’s contrive

I’ve paid for the countless sins

Of those who came before me,

Covered by memories indelible scars

Who knows why the long climb up the proverbial hill top,

Became a slippery slide

Just out of reach is where I’ll remain 

The place where my soul learned

How to let sleeping dogs lie free

Each time they were mistaken

Every time they tried to read between the lines

All the chances they had to get it right

Yet all the times I remember it went wrong

I no longer fear the fleeting time,

Will leave me here alone

There’s not enough left to survive

Another broken heart,

Please love me or just walk away while you can,

Before another melancholy morning’s dawn...

Invisible Soul

…..a poem by Harlon Rivers

An invisible soul stood watching all

Perched from a vantage point in time

Unnoticed concealed visions  

Misconceptions of conventional minds

The soul is not seen visually

Except through thoughts and deeds

Soundless actions go unrecognized

Except by those with needs

A spiritual soul is watching all          

Gifts given to infinite minds

Struggle and strive through madness

Unconscious, blinded humankind 

Perception’s bridges burning

Organized guilted forced and crammed

                       Unrevealed souls that question                       

The brotherhood of man

How can the soul be perceptible?

Vivid light murmurs… distinguishable buzz heard

               The background formless silence              

As actions speak louder than words

The form of life is fading

Light and darkness too small to see

Free choice leaves souls unguided

At journeys birth set free

An invisible soul lives guided

With direction and a path

A spiritual soul the guider

Faith, love and hope is freedom’s journeys path

Harlon Rivers...3/20/2012

Braille Puzzles

Feeling your way through life ...Following your heart, no matter which way the wind is blowing...

Braille Puzzles

Paint- by- numbers

Color your art

Connect all the numbers

Connect all the dots

Knit and crochet

With the threads of your life

Cross stitch and needlework

Latch hook tapestry rewrites

Picturesque puzzles

Collages delight

Scrapbook your day

Photograph moonlight

Embellish lost moments

From sewing boxes of stone

Pencil art pictures

Water color’s passionate undertone

Paper wing origami

Reference book of life

Cut glass and solder

Illusions of candlelight

Fold a paper air plane

Cut a paper doll

Don’t run with scissors

Lessons circular filed

Paper Mache faces

Potato head superficial smile

Lego block fantasy world

Crayon rank and file

  

Dot to dot drawing

An alphabetical smile

Conundrums and crossroads

In every dark mile

Cook book for dummies

Recipe book of life

Braille pages in color

For reading at night

GPS   Utopian confusion

Maps to nowhere

Dead end reverie mazes

A Braille Labyrinth Hell

© 2012 Harlon Rivers 

Hope’s Lighthouse

This poem is something I would like to share here for the holiday season…I dedicate it to the homeless in the hope they may have an opportunity to share a hot meal and find love and respite from their difficulties…I shall remain vigilant advocating for those who are unable to be heard every day ...every single day…

Hope’s Lighthouse

The wave-washed lighthouse towers from rock to sky,

shining brightly over stormy seas

A harbor light marks safe entries enchantment,

pathways into calmer placid peace

Like a beacon of an enlightening  guiding lamp,

it marks a sailor’s journeys end

Safe haven from the storm's wrath at sea,

A tranquil oasis tenable, shielding a place to be free

Hope’s candle burns on wicks in oil

The lighthouse keeper’s master key

will wind the clock that turns the beam

in all directions glowing brilliantly

Come forth inside, rest your soul,

Your journey here is meant to set you free

This vibrant light has caught your sight,

humanities eyes will help shed more light

Inquiring minds and kindred beings

are found inside these halls

Their light gets into the darkest scrolls,

Come within, gather your soul

Hope is near, merciful surrender safe and sound,

waiting for the lost to be found

Come fill dark cracks with hopeful light

The lighthouse lamp will stay in sight

Understanding shared, calming fears

that scare, a troubled worried heart

Lighten burden’s load, share love in the midst of the threadbare,

as hope’s light will shine on through the darkest nights…

© 2012 Harlon Rivers …April 15, 2012

The Womb of Time

... a poem by Harlon Rivers

hours slowly drip 

onto the taunting empty page

the water color palette
dries as if it were thoughts penned
onto a tightly stretched canvas

its been said so many times before
similes... form clots at the tip of the quill
words... finally surrendering to gravity’s flow
as the ink scribes the rumination
flooding the same stuttered notions
another way in another moment

metaphorical sleights of hand...
dry onto the sheet of paper
as traces of past now’s
...miles of written reverie spun
like a spider reprocessing,
carefully savoring,
each fine silk thread of web
spinning the womb of time...

© 2012 Harlon Rivers  … All Rights Reserved

Ships that Sail Away...

September 15,© 2011 Harlon Rivers

What now that all the friends are gone?

They slipped away in silence

Yes it’s a shame and yet cast no blame

Understanding the causes and the reasons

For these things I know, the way things go

Can leave one lonely as solitude deepens

Their ships have sailed… 

They will tell their tall tails,

Of the losses that I feel
Life is mere existence in a world without love
Black clouds loom on the horizon,
While my soul stirs deeply, 
As an imminent perfect storm brewing at sea

Did they ever suffer a dark and lonely despair?
Uncomfortable being inside of their own skin?

Rarely owning peace, at the very least

Still desperately trying to be set free

Is there ever a time when the soul cries in the mind?

When no wind fills the main sail?

Do they ever cry out loud?
Overwhelmed by total doubt?

Standing at dark crossroad’s junctions?

If I bare witness there,

They would only gaze with a hollow, shallow glare

Pointing back at my glowing  imperfections

When real friends misconcieve

It should never be the source to cause ill feelings

Acts of love fall short... building arms length walls

Lesson’s of woven webs, suture lesions into emotional scars

Life’s seasons will come and go

All things shall pass as traces of circles grow fainter

 That crack in the cabin door

shows little light anymore

Those dimmest rays are fading

When doors slam closed

Impending misunderstanding grows

Without time for understanding

When the final bridges fell between two secluded islands

Next came the roar of a deafening sound

What is the sound of a breaking heart?

What were once so called friends are once again,

Broken pieces on a distant shore

Those ships that sailed may loose their way

When stormy sea’s darkness floods their passage

Remember told tails, beware when all fails,

It will come aboard to haunt you

While the silence grows, will they ever know?

Of the many broken pieces left behind

What now that all the friends are gone?
...This journey's tainted path is vividly clear to see...

When my ship sails away 

On that distant day,

The mission bells will ring

As I will sing... to their glorious ring

my soul will be set free...

A Long Way Within

© 2012 Harlon Rivers

A Long Way Within

It’s a long way across rivers wide

A lifetime from shore to rocky shoal

It’s difficult to envision that the earth is turning round

While leering blindly, lost in the womb of time

It’s  a long way from back then to here and now

An unfinished journey from the cradle to the grave

When the mind can’t see tomorrow,

The stars won’t guide you home

It’s a long march up the proverbial hill

A long way across to other distant rock-strewn spires

The possibilities are vast and yet the pathway is unknown

It’s a long mile to carry the weight of that load

The road is long since the embryo of the dawn

Over the hills and far away

Glowing light at the end of the tunnel remains undefined

Until you take that final imminent earthly stride headed home

We’ll never ascend to the highest mountain peaks

Through faithless, fleeting stabs in the dark

Standing on the brink of a precipice

Just a step away leaves one hanging by a thread

There’s a distinct ulterior boundary wall

Looming in the vista beyond

Patient perception unveils the cosmic distance

Witnessing the sphere of life's evolution, through the spirit from within…

© 2012 Harlon Rivers

Finding "Too Misunderstood"

A narrative free form prose poem about the many crossroads of our journeys… when all purpose seems “Too Misunderstood”...

Stopping here during an injury last March of 2012, for a respite from a long journey, has been an important crossroad for personal evolution but there is much to do before peaceful balance is restored.   

…if a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear?   Photo Harlon Rivers 

Here is the link to another chapter of this poetry blog... or the right hand sidebar domino photo link for "Diary of the Falling Dominoes"...

 It is my story of an unfinished life...  
Finding "Too Misunderstood" ----->http://melancholyrivers.blogspot.com/2012/11/finding-too-misunderstood.html

The late Kate Wolf wrote a song years ago that is ruminating constantly though my head and heart. "Unfinished Life"   These lyrics seem to be never ending at the moment...

"It's an Unfinished life that I now find lies before me.

An open ended dream and I don't want to wake. 

Its a journey with my soul that I am taking. 

One that only goes from the cradle to the grave."...Kate Wolf 1942-1986

Time has come to continue a journey with my soul by getting away from the daily  influence of the internet hamster wheel...I am a simple country boy that needs dirt under my fingernails to feel whole, instead of this keyboard with worn off letters.  There must be a balance somewhere in between I have been unable to find.    I have the need to feel the  spirituality of the earth beneath my feet... 

I will still document my journey through creative writing, posting when it feels right.  Although I feel productive now, I feel like I am going around in circles chasing my own tail, never really evolving out of a continuous repetitive cycle... Just when I feel like I am on the cliff edge of real change, ready to step off in a leap of faith and fly, something happens... When I think I am progressing in forward motion, I realize I am right back on that hamster wheel running in place in a mind made cage... chasing an unattainable,  imaginary carrot at the end of invisible puppet strings... 

I need people in the here and now...until I get off this treadmill, "now" will never happen...there cannot be freedom from unhappiness anytime or anywhere but the present moment...Peace on the Planet.

Unspoken Goodbyes

...a poem by Harlon Rivers

All of the unsaid goodbyes have bothered

There is the poignant desire for it to all just fade away

Long since forgiven but never able to be forgotten,

Traumatic misdeeds left footprints scaring a broken heart

The ultimate mind made ball and chain that binds
Muddled turmoil lingers within the fallout
A daunting purgatory of struggle,
Leaves the innocent prisoner pacing the labyrinth cage

There were triumphant times...
The most turbulent of times...
Suspicions will render all hope lost
when the illusion of evil triumphs over love

 A fool on a hill once spoke a lonely thought...
"The most accurate predictor of future deeds are actions past."
Traces left behind of what went before
Fly thither with the winds of change 

Man can not live filled with mistrust and hate
Evolve...breaking free from these chains that bind
Exhale the final breath of forgiveness
There is nothing that triumphs over eternal love...

Light Fades Into Life

Poking a little fun at myself for taking it all too serious at times... yet leaving truth in between the lines... 

Dreamer’s magical reverie can be fashionably vague

Difficult for the apathitic dreamless to comprehend

Dream believer’s essence of indefinable innate wanderlust

illustrates you can not cage enchanting desires in a bottle

  

Day dream weavers evolve in constant cosmic motion

as  artists freely create the lyrical scenes

Visions of grandeur illuminate

mystical alluring significance

Catching lightning in a bottle… Catching lightning in a life

Catching a shooting star paints a miraculous mysterious dreamscape

 Those with the gift of indefinite, infinite imagination

transform radiant light into dazzling effervescence

Alas… naysayers should not criticize what is not understood rationally

Unwanted dreams impassion disbelief’s nightmarish schemes

Consider the animal kingdom’s heightened senses

Non verbal connections heard in stillness only by conscious silent listeners

A dream weaver’s visions of life’s realities

exist beyond objective human cognition

 Felicities are interwoven into poignant tapestries

of multihued silent reveries’ melodic delights

Synchronicity is meaningful uncanny coincidence 

Practical magical mysticism

 Connection just happens in a wink of the cosmos

Premonition is a dreamer’s muse… serendipity splendor against the odds

Just a word whispering dream believer at peace

Dreaming all things are possible and nothing’s  inevitable

Grey light fades into shades of life’s black and white hues

Love’s light fades onto life…

© 2012 Harlon Rivers