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The Samaritans charity's YouTube channel links to my Video poem 'So Sad WAS I'
Saturday 31st December 2011 11:42 am
Daily Libation
`
Raise again this chalice,
fearsome and seductive;
that brims with venom
and sparkles with promise
that in the twilight beckons...
Raise this goblet
to once satin lips
now runnelled with
bypassed dreams,
you hope but hope in vain...
Gulp down your fill,
wait for forgetfulness still;
let the dregs of this cup
caress your wearied mind,
...
Friday 9th December 2011 6:47 am
My work recognized by the Child Abuse Monument in Canada
The video of my Poem 'Our Silence', my hand print and my Book 'Whispers From Within' that will be placed inside the Child Abuse Monument in Canada, is featured front and centre on the StoryProject page, on the Child Abuse Monuments website. My work has been recognized by them before, and by the main person who created the Monument: a Dr. Michael C. Irving. I was also asked to do a little video ...
Sunday 9th October 2011 10:32 am
confrontational history
`
if we looked at history
on a multi-plane spreadsheet
and compared the goings on
in each particular era
we shall find that at any given
period, no matter the advancement
there inevitably at a cost lay revealed
atrocities, genocides, discrimination
prejudices, and a lack of conscience
that marks the brute in humans
poets have also been present
ever a...
Saturday 30th July 2011 4:43 am
Live at the Camden eye, London 3rd July 2011
I did not have live video footage BUT I did do an audio recording which I put to video to share easlily (as usual). I read 'Within ther silence', 'The emptiness of hunger', 'Blooming Vera' (all from my book 'Whispers From Within'), 'Little Beggars' (a new poem) and 'The Missed'.
If you want to find out more, please visit either www.thepoetjohn.com (if its my writing only you want to see) or...
Thursday 7th July 2011 12:39 pm
'The heavy hands of time'
The Heavy Hands of Time
For youth
The clock rarely has hands
For the middle age
It has hands
That starts to spin
Too fast
And for the old
Time weighs heavy
Like all Burdon
Knowing that
Most of your time
Has now gone
Watching the youth
Wishing too
That your clock
Had no hands
To spin so fast
...
Wednesday 29th June 2011 4:54 pm
-as yet untitled-
outside the window,
an ocean of poppies,
red like denial.
she watched them day-in-day-out,
from sunset to the first shards of sunlight
which crept through their stems
and reflected the underside of their petals.
from this she saw veins, a tiny network of
lines like join-up-the-dots,
a motorway map
thin like emotion.
dadd went to war ...
Monday 27th June 2011 7:05 am
'Lifer'
'Lifer'
My crime was being born
For which they punish me for
Yet it is the one thing
I cannot feel guilty about
It could not be my fault
Being born was not my choice
I obviously was not here
When that choice was made
Yet they punish you for it
Just like everything else
That they do
We are punished
For their crimes and sins
We carry ...
Monday 30th May 2011 6:29 pm
'The Ranting Post'
The Ranting Post
It’s a rant
A post that’s down
Well this post might seem a bit down
But it’s the truth
Recent cases of child abuse
The result for the abuser
The end result for the abused
The never ending result for us
Same old, same old
Like me, like us, like them
You could write a poem about it
We have
You could write a book about it
We have
You could make...
Friday 13th May 2011 9:27 pm
Live at the UK Rally Against Child Abuse 2010
This was held on the 7th August in Trafalgar Square, London. I read out my poems 'Someone Once', 'Familiar News', 'Within the silence', 'So sad WAS I', 'It was silence NOT defeat' and 'Beyond the silence'. This video is thanks to 'Truth and Hope's YouTube channel (one of the rally organizers). I would like to thank both organizers 'Cross of Change' and 'Truth and Hope' for making sure the event...
Wednesday 11th May 2011 10:38 pm
'The Rock'
‘The Rock’
I crawled from under a rock
To be here today
It seems so harsh to say
From so very far away
From my comfort zone
My rock, my home
I was only doing what you wanted
You wanted me to be seen
And not heard
You know it well enough
So it’s not so absurd
But to you it seemed
so easy
You could block me out
Easy peasy
But every now and then
The others heard...
Friday 6th May 2011 11:47 am
Live at the Camden eye, London 1st May 2011
Due to health issues and more it is difficult for me to travel out and about, but I make myswelf do it. Its very important t me to spread the word and let others in my position see that sometimes we can do it. 1st May I appeared at The Camden Eye. This was my forth time at this RRRants run event. Like I was saying it takes it out of me, but not enough to stop me arranging to do more, thats the ...
Tuesday 3rd May 2011 4:07 pm
'Blooming Vera'
‘Blooming Vera’
Oh Vera
Your soft clear voice
Tells of the white cliffs of Dover
That all shall see
When all this war is over
Oh Vera
Do you remember when
You told us
We will meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
And though many
were laid down to rest
Best of this Island
From you
Oh God bless you
From us
You still hold true
Oh Vera
You s...
Sunday 1st May 2011 12:49 pm
'But a man'
‘But a man’
If it were, for only birds to see
Through skies, far and wide
Then would we not want to see
Through birds eyes?
If it were only for the horses to gallop
Distances far and wide
And only our limbs could take us there
Could we take that, in our stride?
If it were for only fish to swim
To cross oceans, rivers and waters full
And to sink to their depths of ...
Saturday 30th April 2011 1:18 pm
'She said / He said'
'She said / He said'
She mocked me
With full intent
Her tongue like a razor
To slice right through me
Attack! Attack!
“This is not Poetry” she said
“It doesn’t even rhyme”
As I turned to her and said
“By your command...
But my inner self
Is not on demand
It’s not as fine
As the grains of sand
But also... not so bland”
She turned
Just like her look
S...
Friday 29th April 2011 12:04 pm
'The art of being Lonely'
'The Art of Being Lonely'
Loneliness is Ugly...
Loneliness is a world full of people
Yet still being alone
Loneliness is a room full of people
Close
But never could be further away
Loneliness is finding it hard to say
“I am lonely”
Loneliness is not to be shared
Loneliness is the sharing of it...
But to still be lonely
Loneliness is in an over populated world
...
Thursday 28th April 2011 3:54 pm
'Family Ties'
'Family Ties'
Family ties
Not meant to despise
Not meant to cover the lies
At one time, bringing you together
A thought:
‘It would last forever’
But not in a world of abuse
Deflected, rejected
Used to blame you
Family ties
Ties you up in knots
Oh the pain by them
Soon forgot
Na, na, na, na
Concealed
Beaten down
So you don’t ...
Thursday 28th April 2011 10:52 am
'Dead Poets' (LIVE)
‘Dead Poets’
They killed them.
They revived the ones they loved
And made dead ones of
Ones they didn’t even know
They mocked the mocking birds
Oh I know it sounds absurd
I thought I was ok
You see
I’m a writer first
But they soon righted that
Lucky I’m not a poet
Poetically I’d be dead
I got this stuff in my head
Sometimes it comes out
I write a story or two
G...
Wednesday 27th April 2011 7:27 pm
My Book 'Whispers From Within'
Below are the three reviews on the back cover. But first my own words that are also on the back cover:
...
Tuesday 26th April 2011 11:06 pm
'So sad WAS I'
This next piece is from one of the only times I rang a helpline (the Samaritans). It to me expresses the difference helplines can make, and raises awareness of them. Check out the video on my accounts of it too. Its due to be published in the next RRRants anthology.
'So sad WAS I'
I dialled a number
A soft voice spoke
And talked gently
I spoke tentatively at first
But the...
Tuesday 26th April 2011 5:01 pm
'The Unwritten Poems'
'The Unwritten Poems'
But that my pen
Wouldn’t speak
If I could tell it so
But twas I
Who wouldn’t let it
Oh if I could read you
All the unwritten poems
Of those other poets you know
I would have words
For every moment of the day
And no moments enough
To begin to say
What those poems...
So wanted too
Copyright John Harrison 2010
Video on YouTub...
Saturday 23rd April 2011 4:11 am
Inward Reasons
`
On a hand-hewn pedestal
imagination coalesced;
on milk-white face alight
eyes sparkle with a liquid flame.
Some build ivory towers,
these hands raw from driven labour,
on scratched cheeks a stricken eye
ransoms a sculpted orphan dream.
Across time and Middle Sea
another calloused hand chiselled;
laughter on a pine-white...
Wednesday 30th March 2011 9:53 am
Musing on the Death of Poetry
`
when the clack of keyboards cease
and pages of unbound books
scattered by the indolent breeze
produce a melancholy dirge
think of all the unwritten words
that remain stillborn in the mind
much like the gilded pheasant
out of the snare and into the fire
`
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Saturday 22nd January 2011 10:26 pm
The Silent Quill
`
a grated gate by midnight's light
once fell upon a sorry sight
as rain washed out the scarlet stain
the skies bowed down to hear the pain
a voice without a body heard
the sordid tale its waist did gird
one witness found, torn leaf by leaf
Creation's glory sank to grief
a tale no word was writ nor said
into the ground the silence bled
a soaked and orphaned qui...
Thursday 6th January 2011 12:48 pm
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