Night and Day: A Personal Journey

Introduction

Reading , writing and listening to poetry has been known through the ages to be healing. Many of the accepted sacred scriptures of the world are written in poetic form. There is even a branch of psychotherapy that utilizes poetry as the source of its treatment and the means of alleviating suffering and developing insight.

Besides its healing effects, poetry can be entertaining, humorous, inspirational, bring solace, and provide meaning and understanding of life and of oneself. It connects humanity to each other through shared familiarity of situations, of thinking, feeling and acting states, of suffering and joy, and of everything in between. It facilitates the feeling and expression of emotion, and uplifts and guides one on life's journey. It plays a variety of roles such as teacher, guide, prophet, revealer, opener, awakener, messenger, sympathizer, taskmaster and so on.

This poetry began to slowly come to me beginning in 1970, then in an avalanche in 1973, and I wrote it down. It is sometimes a reflection of the dark, the shadow aspects of being where thoughts and feelings are heavy and language takes on a rather harsh tone - the language of youth and growing pains - at times excessive, exaggerated and immature, yet, authentic. The journey of the evolution of a being. The darkness is the breeding ground for the creation of light. Needless to say, this poetry on the whole is for adults.

Life is a struggle as the great Sufi Master, Hazrat Inayat Khan frequently lectured - a struggle with oneself, with others and with situations. This is an aspect of my struggles in poetic form that I share with you.

J. Adam Milgram
La Jolla, CA
April 2006

SELECTED POEMS FROM THE BOOK

All That We Have Is Ourselves To Share

All that we have is ourselves to share.
Not this, nor that , nor anything.
But ourselves to share.
And what a bounty there is
Surprising, alarming.downright disarming.
Ourselves to see.
        Of dragons and clowns,
        Of poets and prophets.  
Each is within and there are many twins.
Polarities double and paradoxical to view.
Yet we transcend them.

Good Morning

Trees quivering in the wind.
Natural sky speckled by fast flying clouds.
Sun warm and sparkling.
Mowers hum and move unseen in the neighborhood.
The wife prunes a flower pot on the deck.
Good morning.

We Can't Do It Alone

We can't do it alone-
We need Each other

We can't do it alone -
It's too damn big a job.

We can't do it alone -
It takes everybody.
We can't do it alone -
And the Job's gone a-begging.
We can't do it alone -
We, are the only answer.

We can't do it alone -
We have the same destination.
We can't do it alone -
We're all tied together.

We can't do it alone -
We're all just one big family.

We can't do it alone -
We're parts to one puzzle.

We can't do it alone -
We are each other.

Change

The path to change lies in purposely not changing, but accepting.
Change flows directly through the acceptance of what is.
Change is blocked by saying what should be

Your comments are welcome. JAMilgram@aol.com