John's Poetry

Every once in a while I'll get inspired and write a poem.  I've got a long list of partial ideas and starts which I hope to eventually finish and share, but for now here are some finished poems which I hope will help you in some way.

• The Best Years Of Your Life
  
  This poem was written to my wife in an attempt to give some added perspective to her current life of being a full time mother to six wonderful children. I originally wrote this poem as a Christmas gift to my wife in 1997 when we only had two children. It's even more applicable now that we have six. For a little background, my wife has a degree in Modern Dance and was a talented dancer and choreographer before we started having children. There are many days when it seems like she doesn't accomplish anything "important" and feels like she doesn't get any time for herself. I think a lot of mothers can relate. This poem attempts to fast forward to a point in time when the kids are all raised and on their own and it is written as if from them to her.
• Enjoy But Beware
  
  This poem was written in response to pondering a passage from the Tao te Ching (verse 12) and through my own experience in realizing the difference between the world without and the world within. I hope it may strike a chord for you and maybe give you some added peace and confidence along your life path.
• The Best Deal I Ever Made
  
  This one came to me in a flash of awareness and I had to drop what I was doing (which was doing research for some writing I was undertaking) and get the concept to manifest itself in words. It was (and always is) a surreal experience to feel like something is coming through you, not from you. That's how I felt as I wrote this. I hope it helps you in some meaningful way.
• Mile High Steps
  
  This one gets a little personal. It was written as an anniversary gift to my wife (and timeless old friend), Beverly. In 1990, while we were both going to college and dating, I went to Denver, CO that summer to visit her at her home and meet her family. As part of that trip, we took a picture sitting on the steps of the Colorado State capital in downtown Denver. There is a step with a little metal plaque marking the spot at which you are one mile above sea level- which is what gives Denver it's nickname of the "Mile High City." We were married the following summer of 1991. Then in 2010, on a family vacation back to Denver to visit Beverly's family, we went back to the Colorado State Capitol and took another picture there- but this time with our six children. I originally just wanted to have the two pictures side by side, but when I saw them, I knew it needed a poem. This is how it ended up turning out. Even though this one is more personal, I hope you can find universal meaning in it and feel the same feelings of wonderment at just being part of Life Eternal.
• I AM
  
  The small self in all of us has a need to add more words to I AM. I am _________ (a man, a woman, a conservative, a liberal, a jew, a muslim, an American, an African, a father, a mother, a husband, a wife, a doctor, a teacher, a businessman. I am angry, sad, depressed, happy, stressed, joyful, guilty. I am not good enough, I am not like you. But the Big Self in all of us just patiently waits for all the additional words to loose their meaning and for the realization that I AM. (And so are you).