Lightning can strike twice

Lightning can strike twice

Pealing thunder growled

with the rumble of a runaway flash

booming lightning bolts

fling billion volt mortars helter-skelter

glare ricocheting illuminated verve

ominous tolling crashes

oblivious to gravity

throw reverberated reflection

startling charcoal grey billowing nimbus

blackened rolling storm clouds ignite cannons

fire cloud to ground bolts

hotter than sun’s mantle

drenching rain shards

shattering the silence of the dawn

roaring through the awakening quietude

holding on for life

singer of high poems resonates

echoed litanies upon the impearled threshold of the dawn

coyote running naked in the rain; bearing witness ,…

God’s natural gifts bestowed

mitigate man’s visions of grandeur

© Harlon Rivers ... 2014

Standing Barefoot on Rocky Ground ..... a long journey's reprise

Standing Barefoot on Rocky Ground .....
a long journey's reprise

Come walk with me a mile ...
Walk on without our burden’s weighty shoes ,
warily trudging over the long rocky
pathway of a lifetime in my soul ;
a final edifying voyage to freedom .
The winds of change are blowing briskly
as we walk charily over the long
rock-strewn passageway.

I shed these boots and skin, no longer fitting
my scared, blistered and callused soles .
As time slowly passes ,
this craggy terrain has evolved
from a two-way passageway,
into one-way jagged forage …

Standing barefooted and naked on rocky ground ,
dark sunken sleepless eyes scan
the rolling vista as the wind blows star dust
from the halo around the sun ,
blurring the delicate wispy cirrus clouds .

The sun’s radiance paints a frozen ice crystal azure
into a vivid aura of prisms’ glittering corona.
Kaleidoscope rainbows adorn the closest of solar stars .
There's something in the ethereal air
that leaves my soul unsettled ,
grasping for an allusive stability
as rumors of gold elude me ...

The pain and suffering has vanished
as if the body and soul have separated ,
numbness from the ache , severed nerves
sharp reflection on serrated rocky edges ,
deadened useless flesh cut to the bone
by misjudged obstacles encountered enduringly.

The barefooted spirit travels on ,
suffused in the solar spectrum’s dust ;
yearning , longing to saunter
above and beyond the bloated feathery pillows ;
cumulus clouds finally resting at peace .
Dipping these benumbed toes ,
heart’s weeping lesions
into a healing bath from the bowers of bliss ...

An unfinished life
of an open ended dream ,
reluctantly waking to take the last
surrendering steps beyond the threshold ...
A long and winding rocky journey’s destiny
draws near

The halo around the sallow moon
illuminates an understanding firmament ;
the gloaming celestial sphere’s
pending imminent soulful rain awaits
the metamorphosis at the brink of dawn .

A shower of heaven's teardrops shall mourn
the loss of form as the spirit of soul lives on ,
barefooted ,
naked and free
like the dust in the wind
absorbed eternally...


Harlon Rivers

note: memories of the future... 

Hope is like Faith, 

believing in something you can't see, 

but knowing in your heart it’s real.

We all have faith in something...

"Never deprive someone of hope ~

it may be all they have"....Anonymous

June 2014 

...let this humble remembrance of journey's writ

be a lasting memory of this simple being ...

Mending Unraveled Threads

... a poem about the times when we struggle to see things clearly ... Like the moments when it can feel like the mind can become a twisted and tangled mess ...Everybody has turbulent Monday's now and then ... Just some more often than others ...

Mending Unraveled Threads

From time to time the thoughts get so twisted

Lost in vague and muddled silent reverie

If only the silenced words could be spoken clearly

An untangled and redrawn picture

Seen in a new light’s shining glow

The silk threads spun get knotted and tousled

Where the web is blindly woven out of sight

Interlaced within the shadow’s darkness

Ensnarled loose skeins get harder to unravel

When the tangled mess is known by heart

When the trailing vines of the vineyard get twisted

Entwined in the forgotten moments of a time passed

The grapes of wrath craft a bitter sweet vintage

Gone astray within the jumbled maze unfurling

The crawling vines reaching for the radiant sunlight

A journey’s tapestry montage becomes unraveled

Tugging too hard at the past’s hanging strand

Unraveling and exposing every last stitch of thread

As the collage of snippets from the past

Comes unglued

Can you imagine looking up at the enlightening moment

As the mosaic of glistening stars

Assembled the enchanting sky ?

For that instant the universe seemed like crystal clear perfection

Far beyond the mystic illumination of the midnight sun

Do you remember you once held me tight as I trembled ?

You can’t see where you’re going in the pouring rain

You knew for an instant I was lost deep within my being

Until hope parted the clouds

Letting love’s light shine right on through ...

© 2013 Harlon Rivers  … All Rights Reserved

Kayak...the karma of rivers' flow

Kayak...the karma of rivers flow

wild waters call out their names
an ancient spirit within souls beckons
subtle utterance only heard
by the muse of adventure within
scholars of the poetic minutiae
wild water’s flow

cadence imbibes the river
the artisan glides
inertia of motion
dances with water
aplomb reader
of untamed water’s nuances

yin and yang
natural cause and effect
rollicks with the intricacies of flow
understanding beneath the turbulent surface
spontaneity with the gifts of naturalness
riding gravity's pull

go with the flow mantra
as water seeks its own level
springs from mountain high peaks
cascades, plummets, falls
the long journey back home
all at sea

Harlon Rivers

October 13, 2013

Note: big believer in do unto mantra, so this poem was written for and mused by a friend... and our unlikely moment with this simple photograph ... maybe you will help me read the water better...Stands Proud with Heart on Sleeve

Quiet Repose......(4:20)

quiet repose yields inner stillness


sighs too deep for words

exhale purging stifling bemoaned disquiet


understanding silent sounds misunderstood mien



Harlon Rivers

...without poetic breath's resuscitation

This restless day without poetic sway,
it seems the summer's sunsets paused
changing contentment's colour
the cavort under full moon soon forgotten
as poetic timbre wanes of the harmony
within her aspect’s breeze;
the empty stillness within
tides continuum ebbs
the hollow stare ricochets,
echoing back to the sea’s margin;
wanton thoughts of dandle now bane
when the west wind sighed,
then covered the tangled up sands
as if  lust stained sheets
regret’s final traces,
once heard blissfully exhaled
intimate breath's heart song.
~
set the sails,
yet again,
the prevailing winds of change
a’ stirring

unfold the paper sails
hoist the halyard
&
“come about”

restless rivers suffuse
all at sea ~

© harlon rivers …2013

July 2013   Waxing Gibbous Moon  11 day(s) old
Moon in Sagittarius ... Sun in Cancer
Being a Sagittarius I have to wonder after my last 2 days ~

I suffocate,
I digress
I've regressed.
I’ve retrogressed
without fresh breaths
I'm gasping
for
a poetic resuscitation

The Low Anthem - "Charlie Darwin" .....(awesome  song and video)

how fickle remorse ...snippet 11.0

..."independence" is a concept by which we measure the breadth of our indivisible cage

...how fickle remorse ....snippet 11.0

quietly she sighs 
from the darkness
purging the shadows

as unlied words wept

her unsullied tears stain
these hidden scars of torn
rousing conflicted heart and soul


©Harlon Rivers

7.04.2013  ...Waning Crescent Moon 25 day(s) old


...snippets from thinking out loud
   to be continued

unrequited ...(12 word) snippet

the distance 
between restless pages 
speaks louder 
than spoken silence within words 

Accepting Solitude in an Unfinished Life...A chapter from "The Diary of the Falling Dominoes" by Harlon Rivers

Sometimes change happens so fast you don’t even notice . . .however accepting life's changes as reality, can be a slow and self-loathing process . . . we are always as blind as we want to be.
Regrets are a waste of time that can leave you standing alone at the crossroads at the end of that day when the sun goes down. . .

Many footprints are left behind

the countless miles of pathways

traveled throughout an unfinished life.

Barefoot traces of past now’s

wind through the ashes,

as the smoldering embers 

of a turbulent past boundlessly linger.

Oppressive signs of crawling 

on bruised and battered knees 

remain in the dusty wake,

knowing that the squandered energy

trying to shed this calloused skin was wasted in vain

Black and white snapshots frozen in time,

vividly retell when it was as if there was no longer 

valid reasons to believe, as forward steps circled

Unable to beckon the strength

to rise from kneeling on bended knees

with the resolve to stand humbly tall, 

while walking towards the faltering light

Hesitation mired hopeful new strides

crossing the uncharted threshold 

into the void reaching beyond nebulous darkness

There were times when blisters bled raw

and thread bare socks wrung red

Holes in the soles of worn out boots

overwhelmed an unforgettable crippling agony

Distraction numbed the forgotten heartbreak

that enshrouded life, reducing life back

to the beginning  miles, 
when thoughts of mere baby steps was existence

There are days spent suspended

at friendless crossroads,

overwhelmed by indecision’s 
daunting toll,

only to take the wrong turns

foolishly pushed by a faith 
in the winds of change

The low road was recklessly chosen 

Where the shade in the shadows

of the gutter would not hide the burning ache

Days of running blissfully free upon the high road

were short-lived, as the loneliness of isolation

became too much weight to bear 

Infinitely searching for an ambiguous sense

of ever belonging, as it evolved 

into an unattainable destiny.

A  emotionally perplexing feeling 
overshadows an uncompleted journey;

a misunderstood lifetime 
spanning the cradle to the grave.

All the while, 
slowly growing to understand,

it is better to accept 
you may never be certain

you harmonize anywhere,

than trusting the mind made illusion, 

thinking you do.

One day you may awaken to discover. . . 
There becomes a need to cope with 
the disappointment when life unveils 
the end of the day . . .

In a conscious moment of listening 
to the silent stillness within, 

realizing you never will...

Coyote Moon

The sultry summer midnight hour came and went as the full moon's illumination magnified the sun scorched fields of forevermore...a free form prose narrative with cultural influences... A Coyote Moon chapter by Harlon Rivers written to commemorate the last Blue Moon  August 31st,  2012

The sultry summer midnight hour
came and went as the full moon's illumination
magnified the sun scorched fields of forevermore.
The air was so thick through the waist high brambles,
that you could cut it with the Kaiser Blade.
It's a burdensome task to carry that weight,
but the ancient tool was adorned proudly
with an old Tatanka leather shoulder sling.
It was willingly carried by the native warrior, 

defending his passage against the prickles 

of Mother Earth’s barbed cane’s shield.

A natural place where the fusion of subsistence and survival 

are plucked from the thorny sweetbriars

sustaining humble existence.

The shadow from the, exiled silhouette staggered
into the edge of the vast amber wheat field.
A cloud of unsettled dust rose like a twisting dirt devil
in the wake of fluid movement

The traces of footsteps quietly crackled in the dry grass.
Coyote was going there...

The woven willow satchel overflowed

with a fragrant sweetness
The damp Bota bag moistened the wanderer's parched, 

gritty cotton mouth, coughing uncontrollably

as the powdery earth moved the stagnant air
Subtly stirring from the startling motion.
The figure’s unaccompanied shadow stumbled…
stopping to rest on the lone flat rock
enlightened by the glimmering moon light.

All of the panorama vista’s  inhabitants
hushed their free spirited chatter.
Immediately sensing healing energy,
becoming undetectable, soundless listeners.
Instantly silenced by the sound vibration
of the intruders clumsy movement.
Moments passed in starlit stillness
as a shooting star’s tailing, fading shimmer, flickered
like that final moment when the boisterous crack
of the last thunder clap's clamor
decays into total eerie dark silence.

The only audible sound
was that of dusty lungs rattling and wheezing
as if death were near,
and yet it was only a mind made illusion

The exhausted intruder labored
to breathe the hazy night air
in the humid, sweaty stillness.
The beat of his unraveling heart
thundered in his chest without fear.
Eyes of a soul were mesmerized
by a halo around the moon
evolving from the radiant
swirling moon dust of a solar tempest.
Constellations glowing effervescence,
illuminated the silhouette within the shadows.

Firefly's transcend, disappearing into a starlit oasis
The aura of the spirit of the Coyote Moon
had symbolic crescent shaped ears,
able to hear and comprehend every ethereal
wordless sigh breathed.
Inaudible thoughts and sounds
echoed mystically in silent reflections
The essence of every exhaled breath
was an emotional release, coherently revealing
a wholehearted awakening life,
in route to vivid understanding.

Taking ownership of choices
made on life's journey 

paths followed brought relief from sufferance 

in search of peaceful solitude. 

The defining instance lingered
in a final moment of merciful surrender.
No longer fighting unnatural forces,
emotions were absolved, vanishing  into the universe.
All purpose is awakening into the present moment.
Set free like dust dissipated by the fluid wind

The reality of the cost of the toll paid
by a lost and forgotten soul,
enduring man made stigmas,
rooted delusions of missing earthly time served.
Never surrendering to self fulfilled prophecy,
the release of poignant emotional energy
into the sultry surreal air, heightened awareness.
The ethereal energy brought the dramatic howling Coyote to his feet!
Breaking silence... celebrating his nocturnal freedom
with the man in the moon...
The sounds of silence came alive...

Yip yip Awoooh...

© 2012, 2013 Harlon Rivers 

Watching the Sunset Fade

A Poem by Harlon Rivers

The anxiety of "Medical Limbo"

Time seems to stand still

while awaiting the moments anticipated news   

The mysteries of biology

The known weaknesses of the flesh  

Worrisome visions

that toy within fears

genetic foregone conclusions

that manifest as emotional anguish

The hope of new tomorrow’s wane

New moments dawning light dims

Thoughts of the circle

reaching the inevitable end of the song

A silent prayer for acceptance

for the things we cannot change

Courage to fight on for all life 

that remains as hope retains faith

Nothing is inevitable

as long as you want to breathe

You can’t stop the dreamer

from weaving the happiest

of unfulfilled dreams

Knowing completely you can’t stop

a runaway freight train

if the circle's tracks are complete

Physical trials and tribulations

bring you to your mortal knees

The angst of the vast unknown

Trepidation’s shadow is near

Life passes before

tearful yearning eyes,

lost in misunderstood confusion,

as realities uncertainty transcends fear

The final dream…

The only wish…

To not leave this world alone

To merge two passionate loving souls as one

Romantics dreams can come true

Unconditionally, wholeheartedly

together as one

before the merry-go-round’s

final setting sun… 

© 2012 Harlon Rivers 

"Stormy Seas"

At times we feel trapped and stuck in a moment we cannot get out of…The feeling of lost hope and our struggle to fight off difficult times, feeling alone yet afraid to ask for help. 

Stormy Seas ... a poem by Harlon Rivers

A storm is raging on the frothy sea

Mountainous waves toss the vessel to and fro
The ravaging Nor'easter impales with a deafening blow
Raucous salty sheets of spray soak and dampen all around


A bucket bails the raged sloop
She moans and groans as she’s flung about
A sailor sails. A sailor endlessly bails
Alone in the perfect storm


Two oars are manned on the stormy seas
The halyard torn and ripped from mast
To row and bail is an impossible feat
It’s hard to tell when you’ve sprung a fateful leak


The captain mans the forlorn skiff
Traditions sink down with the ship
His furious soul laments life’s toil
As violent waves crash the gunnels hold


He screamed out loud, “My time has come!”
“My ship is sinking, her broken pieces will not be found!”
The rampart boat, well fortified yet built to fail
Plummets from hills of water pitifully tall


Cracks are leaking where the lurid light gets in
But so does the salty water, will drowning soon begin?
Lost hope floats the helpless, fearless one man crew
His soul now guides his ship


A vessel drifts lifeless on the empty calming sea
Nothing but it can be seen for miles of skies
The free board is deep the salty water high
Two apathetic oars both silent, is a lost soul inside?


© November, 2011... Harlon Rivers

~ Silently Thinking Out Loud ~

...when I started other chapters to the Word Whisperer Poetry blog, at the time I hoped Soul Journey would become the  most read and have evolved with me as a person...Admittedly neither has happened so I am going to reopen and try again... "Silently Thinking Out Loud" was a poem written last April of 2012 during a time I felt like I was getting back on track

"Silently Thinking Out-loud"

We are both

Blessed

and Burdened

by the empowering

responsibility of making our life choices

The path taken

is our journey’s evidence

fraught

with opportunities to reclaim 

our soul's influence of selecting options

We may choose our 

response

to what ever

obstacles

our pathway may incur

We may

resist

and loathe

the difficult moments 

in life

We will  find the valor

to evolve into 

the conscious moment's dimension 

free to be the moment

Blessed by the Burden

of truth...

Burdened by the doubters 

needing proof...

Compassionate understanding 

liberated by choosing presence 

Life here and now...

© 2012 Harlon Rivers ... All Rights Reserved 

Written ~ April 7th, 2012

Doubters vs Believers

Sometimes a first step starts a journey of 10,000 steps...It can be logical to question…doubt. But sooner or later moments of motion transcend fear within doubt, liberating belief in our actions…

a poem by Harlon Rivers

"Doubters" and "Believers" are polar opposites,

like North is of South

Yet there is a little of both East and West in everyone

The protagonist versus the antagonists, a stalemate of the middle,

neutralizing fire and ice into water

Doubt fosters uncertainty and disbelief darkening optimism

of hopeful illumination of brighter pathways.

Belief in humanity cultivates faith into new beginnings, 
brighter moments, hopeful tomorrows. 
Finding inner peace and balance awakens devotion to hope.

Fidelity of unseen gravity is grounding

Trust is found through sincerity,  authenticity,  and yet

doubters hazy indistinctness muddles the enlightenment

of confidence that the long and twisting road

does not come to a dead end

just around the unseen bend in the pathway

Significance of ideals can not be discovered 

until insignificance renders us into 

an egoless thought of a speck of dust 

As the volcanic flow of significance in thought immerges

from the dust,   it builds the doubters dome into belief

as if seeing becomes believing transforming ambiguity

into definable reflections of faith in love.

Nothing is inevitable except to know the circle of life is a circle.

There is likely only one complete,  complex journey around  

and only we can choose which crossroad to turn upon.

To dream of doubt concludes the final dead end corner.

To be a dream believer cultivates eternal faith in hope...

© 2012 Harlon Rivers

Cupid's Broken Arrow

Some things we learn so slowly... Some things we never learn... Some things we learn the hard way... The only way to survive a broken heart is to leave Cupid's broken arrow and hope it heals with a scar before it drips and drains all remaining life from your heart...

The spell was cast by memory

With the wanderlust of a rolling stone

Traces of broken dream’s dust and ashes

Fell like love cast out with a claustrophobic moan

A broken heart could not convince me

Every heart has not a home

 A lonely sailor, banished, cast out for the final voyage

Into a world without an island to feel a tranquil peace

Born of mother earth, into a race where faded memories were erased

Journeying out into an unknown raging sea, before learning to walk the land

Dreams of some lost abandoned safe haven, an illusion

Welcoming shorelines were never discovered by this soulful man

A world where what’s lost is rarely found

Where square pegs never fit the round 

When the die is cast from molten life

It cools and forms flesh and bone

Insignificance, abandoned, left feeling like a heart without a home

In the end the faded memory is chiseled and scribed on some forgotten mossy stone.

In a distance I hear the eerie silence

The ship's final soul has sailed on a windless sea

Drifting infinite fathoms, the icon of a loveless being, another random lifetime lived, 
like a lonely sunken ship of treasures, lost in the darkness undersea.

I’ll walk another endless mile always knowing,

there will never be a home for my heart in the world ahead of me.

Reborn into a world where every passing thought becomes a fading dream

Love may be the last gasping breath left unbreathed

Belonging is a walking contradiction of my self esteem

Oh! heart and soul be set free...

Exhausted and weary of struggles, forsaken by gravity

No longer resisting the absolute surrender, the final choice that sets your soul free...

© 2012 Harlon Rivers… September 27th, 2012

Cleansing Rain

...waiting for the pending winds of change to blow the storm clouds past... 

A long awaited metamorphosis... from the author of 

Word Whisperer...

Look up and breathe as the crying sky explodes

Inhale natures’ showering unblemished symphony

The oppressive black cloud hanging overhead lingers

Emotions ebb and flow with the moment’s immanent spirit of light

A freeing sensation excites anticipation

of the sky’s pending fated purposeful release

Heavens… flood down in a drenching act of baptism

by a merciful drowning in the river of celestial tears

Torrential rains wash over me like a cleansing rain

Cleanse the dust and ashes of the abandoned frozen traces

What once was a blossoming presence,

Evolved into a foggy cold winter season

Now all that remains is but a shadow of what once was,

Life was nearly eroded away by the years of fallen tears

Rinse away unrequited love’s stagnant inversion

Washing away the invisible chains that bind

To the loathsome heavy ball

Of an unforgiving past

Know the cleansing rain is the spirit of love

Washing over an exhausted heart of soul 

Left exposed and naked to the world

Look out with thoughtful eyes into the universe

Never stop believing the dream is eternal

Envision the clouds in the dark sky parting

As all that awakening light comes shining through

Renewing the promise that surrendering to love, 
shall be destiny’s purpose...

Harlon Rivers...December 10th, 2012