October 31 comes with parties … candy treats … a long and varied history … remembering …
Continue reading October 31 comes – beware pricking of thy thumbs
Category Archives: Poetry
the gods need not take our sight … (peak of eternal light)
the gods need not take our sight …
[updated 5-19-2025]
we scale ourselves …
in moving from low to high,
we see our pathway as true,
and that we are in the right.
yet forever left nearby,
as if they are out of view,
still the shadows of the night
whether heaven or haven
will ever erase our blight,
our myths impel us even
further on a cosmic flight
[refrain]
contemplate views from the site
the infinite in your sight
a temporary delight
the peak of eternal light
like Sisyphus for his wrongs,
while the summit’s view rivets,
we cannot stay at such height,
it’s not where our soul belongs,
just for brief tourist visits
the peak of eternal light
Copyright © 2025 John P. Healy
Continue reading the gods need not take our sight … (peak of eternal light)
Our longest saga – the evolution of humanity
Pondering the big picture, what has changed in the last 100 years or so …
This article (republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license) is a useful recap of our understanding of human evolution, and an excellent visualization of that story, including salient talking points.
The millions-of-years history of our rise as a species is a fascinating story of patient pursuit of knowledge. A pursuit all too often underfunded and under-resourced, starting with singular archeological discoveries and growing into multidisciplinary collaboration. That joint research expanded the outlines of our story from bones & stones to geographic and climatic events, to genetic (DNA) arcs, and to social and cultural changes.
Continue reading Our longest saga – the evolution of humanityHolding the middle – gerbil lessons
Over the years, when there’s been conflict between groups – like what’s been in the news lately, I’ve thought of a lesson from watching pet gerbils. About what sparks conflict in situations where both sides avow nonviolence. And when, in fact, there’s been peaceful coexistence.
the beasts at the end of my desk
MORE LESSONS … (from gerbil poems)
these beasts at the end of my desk,
these gerbils, my living phylacteries,
busy themselves in front of me, as if to say,
“what is there more than eat, work, sleep, and sex?
what is this talk of symbols in decay?”
midstream – even as we do
midstream
I
we are suddenly
one that needs care.
germinating in a culture,
located within a history,
of lives living midstream,
even as we do
A titan’s quest
A titan’s quest
years from now, after all,
will we aptly recall
throughout many seasons
the road of our reasons
which pushed electric cars
and pilgrimage to Mars?
step quickly inside …
Room Pasadena *
[Revised 4-9-2022]
on a bright sunny morning
no clouds in the sky,
in the hall nearby his room,
i decided to drop by
behind the door (i) heard motion,
i knocked to say hi,
the way cracked a tad open,
a dim voice spoke by-and-by
“you’re welcome to pass,
but step quickly inside,
you’re letting out the darkness
which i hope you can abide”
Conflicting perspectives
And then the worldly context of any discourse:
It was a time of hope, it was a time of fear,
it was an age of science, it was an age of ignorance,
it was an epoch of climate change, it was an epoch of disbelief,
it was a period of dreams, it was a period of politics,
it was a spring of recovery, it was a season of collapse (1)