Poetry

from "Nocturnes"

When pain comes

"a universe of broken people"

- Joyce Carol Oates

When pain comes like waves breaking on the shore of your heart,

your life is circumscribed by the roar of the breakers.

So much more living would be possible if only you could step apart

from the pain.

You search for someone with whom to share -

there are no takers.

It binds your thought with straps of steel that defy your heart's logic.

Frozen in time the memory of pleasant places is hidden by shadows,

Which, like shards of memory, shower your being with moments of magic.

You try to escape from this world -

hiding inside and staring out the windows.

Seeing all the other broken people.

- James Henderson, May 1993

From "Nocturnes", a collection of night thoughts in the poetic mode.