FLIGHT RISK (a poem)

Here I stand 
In between 
An ending 
A beginning 
If the door closes 
Should I open a window 
Take a leap 
To see if I can soar 
Never mind the height 
Flying at speed  
Ground falling up
A million miles an hour 
Brace for impact 
By letting go 
Of what I cannot see 
What I can’t control 
Only then maybe 
I will find me 
Swirled in a second wind 
Leaving behind 
All that has been 
Embracing all I could be 

~~~~~~~~~~~~
2025, John L. Harmon  

I’ve been writing a little each day this month and FLIGHT RISK is one result of this endeavor. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S.  My 2019 collection of half-blind poems can be found as an audiobook from Audible… 

On the eve… (a poem)

Can’t you see 
Shadows under eyes 
Tears unable to fall 
For today 
Yesterday 
What may come 
In a world 
Full of souls 
Separated 
Isolated 
How can loneliness 
Prevail with many 
Crowded spaces 
Not enough time 
Avoidance is key 
Survival tactics 
Installed within 
Deep distrust 
Misunderstandings  
Abound and surround 
Suffocating intentions 
Without explanations 
Either this or that 
No grey conceived 
No lines between 
Sight narrowing 
Forcing positions 
You against me 
____________ 
2025, John L. Harmon 

Just expressing my thoughts and feelings of late.  

Freak Out, 
JLH 

A Short Story (a short story, of sorts)

    I stare, glare at the black screen through two pieces of plastic glass.  The white too bright to reflect, refract, magnify my muddled words.  Feeling the syllables crawling, scrawling beneath this growing older by the millisecond skin.  Verbal seeds screeching, reaching for the blinding sight of others to inhale, devour, clatter in their respective collective mindscape.  Fading away fingerprints scrolling through digital pages or tips bleeding from flipping sharp paper edges in a frenzy to discover meaning in nonsense and senselessness in moments.  Watering eyes, tears or sweat blurring lines of fictitious reality and really fiction until the happy or not end is reached, achieved.  My voice spent, digits numb from popping letters into place, trying to place the seen from my head onto the dark screen floating in depth, closer than appears but so far from the soul suffocating inside.  Circling the circles surrounding sighing eyes, unable to see what others claim to see inside out.  Inside me within the lines of a short story that may never come to be.

____________
2024, John L. Harmon 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S.  Escape reality through my books available from an Amazon near you…

Killer Nature (a poem, of sorts)

Take my hand 
As we stroll 
Through the flowering fields
Until our feet meet with thorns
Infection quickly spreads 
Losing the need for shoehorns 

Take my hand 
As we hobble 
Through the wandering woods 
Until a full hugging tree 
Slaps our smiling faces   
Leaving us with nothing to see  

Take my hand 
As we feel 
Through the silent shrubbery   
Until aromas make us crave 
Sweet berry poison  
Leading us to nature’s grave 

____________
2023, John L. Harmon 

I asked a friend for a poetry topic and she suggested nature.  The above words were the result. 🌳🪦

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S. click the pic ⤵️ for a different poem inspired by a different friend… 

~~~~~~~~~~~~
My books on Amazon… viewAuthor.at/JohnLHarmon 

Foreshadowing Winter (a poem, of sorts)

Attempting to embrace 
The autumn landscape 
Stretching before me 
Days growing shorter  
Clocks winding down 
Leaves quickly falling 
Once vivid memories 
Now slowly fading 
Decaying on the ground 

____________
2023, John L. Harmon 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S. an appropriate classic from The FreakOptic Files for this day… 🎈

~~~~~~~~~~~~
My books on Amazon… viewAuthor.at/JohnLHarmon

Caught Waiting (a poem of sorts)

Words caught 
Like fragments 
Of glass 
Coating my throat 
Blood flowing 
Away from 
What I could write 
All I could say 
Until my mouth 
Closes up 
Until my thoughts 
Run dry 
And I wait 
For the day 
When my eyes 
Completely fail 
To see the world 
And all it meant 
And what 
It never seemed 
To me 

I should use this as my obit pic

____________
2023, John L. Harmon 
Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S. Are you aware October is Blindness Awareness Month?  (Click the pic ⤵️ for my post from 2022) 

Cornered View (a poem, of sorts)

Tell me how I feel 

After you tell me I shouldn’t 
Feel disappointment 
In the drop 
From 5 to 3 
Despite the coverage 
Layering eyes and ears 
Of place and time 
Time allegedly bad 
Never you mind 
This ain’t a ghost town 
From 9 to 5 

____________
2023, John L. Harmon 

(This poem, of sorts was inspired by the recent book signing event I blogged about last week.) 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 
~~~~~~~~~~~
For more about STURGEONS… 
https://freakboyzone.blogspot.com/2023/07/and-now-for-commercial-break-in.html

On Kilter (a poem, of sorts)

Coat me in the afterglow 
of words and faces 
I’ll never not know 
until electric synergy 
scratches from inside  
digging to the caverns 
where my true eye survives 
unfurling the lens-scape 
with magnetic flows 
caressing the kinetic level  
where only unconventionals go 

____________
2023, John L. Harmon 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S.  

For your consideration…
The 5-🌟 review of STURGEONS (the complete serials) from My Gay Opinion on Amazon…

The Effect After (a poem, of sorts)

Words released 
Scattered miles 
Deep breath 
Following trials 

Others waiting 
Spinning round 
Empty pages
Whispered sounds 

Tapping digits 
Captured words 
Another beginning 
Forever absurd 

____________
2023, John L. Harmon 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S. 

STURGEONS (the complete serials) has received its first review and the glowing words originate from Amazon France! 🇫🇷 

Convalescent Thoughts (a poem, of sorts)

Slit my I 
Leaking tears 
Blood flowing 
Vivid memories 
Flashing visions 
What I’ve seen 
Within the unseen 
Early daze 
In between days 
Living only now 
Being only here 
Breathing only sighs 
Waiting for tomorrow 
For whatever waits 
For me and eye 

____________
2023, John L. Harmon 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S.  click the pic for a cut half-blind poem…

~~~~~~~~~~~~
My queer little books are available at an Amazon near you… 
viewAuthor.at/JohnLHarmon

10 years in the freakboy zone…

My first post was posted on Friday, May 24th, 2013.  I wrote about wanting to entertain through my words and how I didn’t want to set parameters for this blog.  Essentially, I planned to blog about whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.  

Did I achieve what I set out to do a decade ago?  You have joined me as I released short stories, poetry and blog serials.  You have experienced my reviews of some wonderfully off-kilter books, films and television series.  You have stood by me as I shared my struggles & triumphs with vision loss.  You even stuck around as I dragged you into my obsession with the late filmmaker Andy Milligan.  Hopefully through it all, I entertained you and maybe accidentally expanded your horizons. 

No matter how old I get, I shall always be a freakboy, so here’s to another 10 years in the zone… 🤓 

Thank you to past, present and future readers!  My appreciation runs deeper than words can fully express.  

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S. You have also tolerated the plugging of my books, so click the pic ⤵️ for a recent red carpet review of DARK EXCURSIONS from Realweegiemidget Reviews… 

Kaleidoscopic Thought (a poem, of sorts)

I spend too much time in my chaotic mind 
Deconstructing the past 
Downplaying my victories 
Focusing on my failures 
Until I circuitously shift 
Constructing a future 
Full of flagrantly ephemeral   
Possibilities and desires  
Until past and future meet 

Struggling for supremacy  
Fracturing my phantoms 
Leaving only present day me 
Spending too much time in my chaotic mind 

____________
2023, John L. Harmon 

This was inspired by the above photo, which I took in 2014 and recently unearthed through Facebook Memories. 

Oh, and happy National Poetry Month! 📜 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S.  One way to celebrate National Poetry Month… 🤓

available from an Amazon near you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
My books & blogs… 
http://thejlhcollective.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-collective.html

Ode to an Auction House Murder Doll (a poem, of sorts)

Wake me up at midnight 
Remind me that I’m bold 
Blur the lines of wrong and right 
In my fractured heart of cold 

Whisper to me at midnight 
Secret names I should dispose 
Sending them to heavenly light 
With neither tear nor rose 

Put an end to me at midnight 
When your use for me is done 
Allowing death without a fight 
Cherishing all our bloody fun 

____________
2023, John L. Harmon 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 
JLH 

P.S. click the pic for an ode from a different time…

~~~~~~~~~~~~
My book of half-blind poems is available at an Amazon near you…

Passing Secrets (a poem, of sorts)

Lips parting 

Tongue straining  

Ready to spill 

The blood 

of truth 

or lies 

or whatever 

secret  

Needs to be 

Shared  

in the moment 

When no one is 

Listening 

Just between 

Us 

and the ears 

We set 

Burning 

____________

2023, John L. Harmon 

The preceding was born from a request by a friend to write a poem about secrets.  I hope I fulfilled the request in a satisfactory manner. 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 

JLH 

P.S.  A book full of other poems, available from an Amazon near you… 

getbook.at/VisionBent 

Ghost in an Echo (a poem, of sorts)

I keep going 

Because 

I need it 

The challenges  

The creativity 

Even though 

I’m hard 

on myself 

Believing 

I’m unworthy 

Believing 

the voices 

From the past 

From inside 

That I’m nothing 

That I’m shit 

That I don’t exist 

Just an echo  

From a 

long ago 

dream 

Faintly reverberating 

Through space  

Through time 

Until 

there is 

nothing 

left 

of 

me 

____________

2023, John L. Harmon 

This poem was written while listening to “the lonely ghost on the sun” by Blue Sun Chasing, an incredible sonic creation which can be experienced through Bandcamp. 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words.

Freak Out, 

JLH 

P.S.  click the pic for a thematically related video from 2016… ⤵️ 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

My books & blogs… 

http://thejlhcollective.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-collective.html