Metamorphoses: Poems to Share

By Harvey Jones

This is the story of the life of a man who has gone through many metamorphoses, or changes, in his eighty plus years of living. It chronicles the changes in his attitudes on love and marriage; his religion, his sexuality, and even his appearance.

It is written in various poetic styles from simple rhyming couplets to the more rigid discipline of haiku and tanka, forms of Asiatic poetry.

It was written in the hope that others, regardless of age or gender, might find themselves reflected. Hopefully, they will realize that others have gone through the same turmoils they are now going through and have managed quite well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9781662484384

Harvey Jones

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Harvey Jones is the pen name of Jan Harvey and Sian Jones. Both of us were born in Wales and live in Barry. Jan is an experienced and well-respected professional carer and has two grown up children, and Sian is an English teacher and a single mother to her grown up son. We like nothing better than taking in the natural beauty of the Welsh countryside and visiting the local beaches with Jan's German Shepherd, Connie. Indeed, Wales has inspired our writing and serves as the setting for our novel, Hook Up, and its upcoming sequel, Legacies. As mature women with a lot of life experience, we relished the opportunity to explore something different and enter the world of writing novels. A local paper has referred to us as a 'Welsh writing duo' and we like to think of ourselves as this!

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Metamorphoses

Poems to Share

Harvey Jones

Copyright © 2023 Harvey Jones

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

ISBN 978-1-6624-8424-7 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-8438-4 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Daybreak

Also written by Harvey Jones

Books:

Poetry: Tokyo to Kyoto in Tanka

One-Act Plays:

Sunday Father

Home Again

Who Are You, David Robinson?

Clarence Darrow, A Sentimental Rebel

Tennessee Williams, Laughter and Lamentations

James Reeb, His Life and Death

The Waterman

Satan's Psychotherapy and Cure

The Sword and The Dragon

History of New Bern, WV

Rasputin, The Maligned Prophet

A Day in August

Introducing John Brown

Gay Erotica

Collection of Short Stories:

Sexual Limericks

Introduction

Early Beginnings

Black-Market Child

Mowing the Lawn

Hello to High School

A Valedictory Address

After High School

Navy Days

The Crossing

The Light

Upcoming Choices

The Sea and I

Among the Crowd

Alone Again

Home Again

Boredom

My Napoli Family

Christmas Eve 1958

New Year's Eve 1958

Death in the Afternoon

A Pompeii Day

Suez Canal 1963

A Red Sea New Year's 1964

New Year's 1965

The Chief's Initiation

Key West Days

Soulmates

Creation

Forbidden Love

Eddie

Return

Searching

Yes to Another Stranger

Turmoil

Divided Love

Normality

Indecision

Memories

Love's Reward

Unitarian Church of Norfolk

U-U Haiku

Why Travel?

Traveling

Budapest

Transylvania

South America

Escape

New Zealand

Australia

Haiku and Tanka

A Touch of China in Haiku

A Tanka Day

Japan through Tanka

Two Cocoons

Christmas Parodies

Alaskan Twelve Days of Christmas

Hawaiian Twelve Days of Christmas

The Night Before Christmas

Visitor on Flight 903

Musings

On the Death of a Friend

The Choice

I Am the Sea, the Sea Is Me

Life

The Party

My Past, My Future

Life's Cruel Jest

Religion and Sexuality

Religious Growth

Sexuality

Sexual Metamorphoses

Failure

Masks

Acknowledgments

About the Author

We are here to remember HARVEY EDWARD JONES. Harvey was known to many of us, yet none of us really knew his full nature. He did not like to be labeled. He thought labels were just masks, masks we put on for the various situations that we encounter. He once wrote a poem called Masks in which he listed over 78 masks that he has worn, one for each year of his life.

Though he was a member of several churches during his life, he did not consider himself to be a member of any organized religion. His religion was the way he lived his life. He believed in doing what he thought best for the situation, and he was ready to accept the consequences of his actions.

Harvey liked to start programs that he thought were necessary at the time. Once they were going strong he moved on to the next project. In this way he touched hundreds of people's lives; people who never knew him.

He considered himself a world traveler, not a tourist. He visited over sixty countries and each of the forty-eight states. When embarking on a trip to a foreign land, he would learn some basic phrases in the language of the country he was visiting. He found that after trying to speak to people in their native language, they were friendlier and more likely want to speak English. After seeing the tourist must see sights, he spent his time with the local inhabitants. He enjoyed what he called his self-guided bus tours of the city. He would get on a local bus to anywhere, get off when he saw an interesting area, talk with the people there, maybe have a bite to eat or drink with them, exchange some ideas and then get on another bus to another area. In this way he felt he got to know a little more of the people and their culture.

Believing that he had lived before, he was not afraid to die. He believed that he would live again in another time, another body, another community. He felt those he know in this life he knew in a past life and would know again in a future life, but not in the same relationship as in this one.

How would he have us remember him. Since it has been said that even as a chain is as weak as its weakest link, it is also as strong as its strongest link, Harvey did not dwell on a person's weakness, but instead tried to help them develop their strengths. This was his way of saying, I love you. He tried to express his love through his actions, not his words; doing so without expectations of praise or recompense. A simple thank you was enough. As he once had a character in one of his plays quote,

So I be written in the book love,

I care not for the book above;

Erase my name or write it as you will,

So I be written in the book of love.

Daybreak

The daylight grows pale

as the sun scratches the sky,

and morning bird songs

begin the day's overture.

I eat a cream-filled doughnut,

and drink my black coffee.

I begin by sitting quietly,

planning the new day.

Birds, loud and raucous,

fill the air with their calling.

Soon, all is quiet.

As they begin to migrate,

my eyes follow them.

As the wind rustles the trees

and the sky lightens,

I rise, walk to my office,

and start my day's work.

Also written by Harvey Jones

Books:

Poetry: Tokyo to Kyoto in Tanka

One-Act Plays:

Sunday Father

Home Again

Who Are You, David Robinson?

Clarence Darrow, A Sentimental Rebel

Tennessee Williams, Laughter and Lamentations

James Reeb, His Life and Death

The Waterman

Satan's Psychotherapy and