Howard (Hal) Thomas Manogue, was born in Philadelphia, and is a forerunner to the Indigo children, a now age term for misfit with an intuitive nature, a desire to know his truth with a gift of giving and sharing. Hal retired from the shoe industry after 35 years of sole searching, and discovered his real soul.
He enjoys art, music, philosophy, psychology, nature and people.
His poems have been published by: Mystic Pop Magazine, Children Of The New Earth Magazine, New Age Tribune, Seasons Of The Soul Newsletters, New World View, Lightship News and Writers In The Sky Newsletters. His essays can be found on www.ezinearticles.com and www.selfgrowth.com authorsden.com and ascensionnetwork.com . Hal's Blog and Website:
www.shortsleeves.net
www.halmanogue.blogspot.com
Hal's new book: Short Sleeves Insights: Live A Ordinary Life In An Non-Ordinary Way,is in print now. Hal has also published 3 books of poetry titled: "Short Sleeves A Book For Friends." It is a series of 10 collections that will be complete in 2015. The 3 published collections and his new book are available in book stores, online and on Hal's website.
A Poet's Journey: From the Noise to the Quiet!
The journey through time has so many roads to experience. My journey as you might expect is no different. I had so many choices to experience so I decided to take a turn off my chosen road and venture into a completely new world. I love to write early on in life. It was the one thing that I felt comfortable doing, but I saw no future in it or should I say no money in it. I wanted money and lots of it so I quit school and started to chase the money.
.Somehow I landed a job selling shoes and for 25 years I thought the shoe business was my ticket to riches and a retirement filled with all the luxuries money can buy. The shoe business was the perfect vehicle to meet people and make money. Traveling nationwide and working in Asia, Europe and Brazil, taught me so many valuable life lessons. I have been blessed with wonderful friends all over the globe. I have been able to create inerasable memories and lasting bonds.
Yes, my life was externally comfortable but I still wondered what I was doing. I could not see the point of this me by what I had been taught, experienced or remembered. The thought of how I appeared to others was more important than self worth. I was plagued with the same situations we all face in one form or another; addiction to or from something, an inner fear of not being good enough and guilty for not understanding why. Of course the Death word was the ultimate fear for me and for everyone around me. I knew all of this was manifesting in various physical forms, weight gain or loss, injuries, health issues and off course not having enough of anything; I wanted it all!
In 1996 my mother died. My world stopped. She devoted her life to her family and her religion. Being raised in a devout Irish Catholic home she learned she could love and trust her God as long as she followed the teachings of the church. She believed. I struggled with rules and authority so her path and mine on religion were different. Mom loved her God and prayed that when she died she would be reconnected with him as well as all those who had gone before her. I had no idea what to say to God.
I now know her prayers were answered and more but at the time of her death, I felt alone for the first time in my life. It was all about me. She was gone. Who or what but Mother would do what she did for me?
Feeling completely separated from her I wanted answers, I wanted her back. I turned to philosophy beginning with Plato, Aristotle, Heraclitus, Plotinus, Lao-Tzu, Nagarjuna, Buddha, Confucius, and Augustine. I started studying psychology and noticed anytime the author wanted to project a thought he would use poetry. I never had an interest in poetry; I didn’t own a book of poetry.
One poet continued to be quoted in the books I studied. His name is Jalaluddin Rumi, better known as Rumi, who lived in Turkey in the mid-1200’s. His family were scholars and theologians and they dedicated their lives to teaching. His words seem to call me so I bought my first poetry book.
Rumi’s writings completely took over my thoughts. While reading his work I realized my life would never be the same again. It was in reading Rumi’s words and his unending search for Shams of Tabriz, that I felt Mother’s closeness and connection.
Then I Discovered Rilke, Blake, Goethe, Dante, Dickinson Takahashi, John Paul II and other Eastern and Western poets. In all of these friends, I found the same message regardless of the time portal: That love of self, reconnecting with my inner consciousness, brings love to all life.
In order to love and to give the gift, I first had to be the vessel that held love for all things. In love there is no death only eternal life. Our loved ones live and always will.
Our inner voices are connected in one. There is no separation after physical death.
This is the kind of message I’ve heard all my life, but it was Mom’s complete connection with God that opened a door for me thru poetry. I looked and all I needed to do was enter. I had to forgive myself so I could forgive others. I was looking to others for help, before I helped myself. The answers sit within me.
I create the world I live in either connected to my spirit or feeling separated from it.
Separation is no longer an option. I am never alone living in spirit. No one is.
At that point I found myself completely immersed in writing; the love I neglected for over thirty years was standing before me ready to reconnect with me. Mom was there with me gently nudging me to remember who I am. She held out the road sign, al I had to do was follow it, and I did.
I retire from the shoe business and started writing full time. I write poetry and essays now. My collection of poetry: Short Sleeves Spirit Songs is published every year. My new book of essays: Short Sleeves Insights: Live an Ordinary Life in a Non-Ordinary Way was published in May 2008. I write a daily blog and my work has been published all over the world.
The funny thing is I don’t do it for the money, I do it to reconnect to my inner consciousness and I do it to feel Mom’s presence. She is right here with me as I write this and I can hear her saying: “In between the noise there is the quiet where abundance, peace and love shower you with unity and the choice to be free…”
That kind of quiet is filled with the noise of love and it is filled with the eternal luxury of oneness.
A Blue Print Of An Unknown Reality!
Webster's Dictionary defines a poem as: An arrangement of words written or spoken that express experiences, ideas or emotions in a style that is more concentrated, imaginative and powerful than that of ordinary speech or prose. Some poems are in meter, others in prose and others are in free style.
When I began writing poems I didn?t read that definition. I didn't expect to spend my life writing a form of poetry that is to most that read it, a self-given poetic license. The poems I write do not fit into the recognized structure of poetry; they are hybrids of thought that are hard to understand in normal terms. Using accepted beliefs about the nature of physical existence will not bring my work into focus. By releasing myself to another form of my consciousness I am able to verbalize that consciousness in a manner that is unique, yet similar.
This journey of awareness began early in life for me, but I repressed it and felt a great amount of fear when I realized the diversity that existed within me. I made the choice to live my life as a typical human, working, marrying, having children and being generally discontent in the circumstances that formed my life. I blamed this feeling on others and outside factors that did not want me to feel good about myself; It way easier to put the burden of unhappiness on something or someone else and continue living in fear and anger. I was able to judge others; I put myself on a table of right and wrong so that I could justify my actions. I was the fork that lifted the food of righteousness to my mouth and the knife that cut the unwanted fat of diversity from my plate. I was the spoon that swirled and dissolved the sugar of lies into my drink of anxiety. I sat at this table for almost forty years and then the table collapsed.
My mother died in 1996, and her death completely shattered that table into tiny pieces. I wanted answers about death; I wanted answers about sickness and I wanted answers about living. I began a new journey through time reading everything I could find about those topics and I found myself meeting someone I never expected to meet; another me. All the philosophy books, all the psychology books and the self help books from voices around the world lead me to a place that I had completely forgotten, called the unknown reality within me.
I found a blueprint of myself waiting for me to build a physical foundation of freedom in linear time. The blueprint had always been there wrapped in a corner of my mind waiting for me to feel it. I began to feel it through the words of Rumi the 13th century Sufi poet. I felt it through Rilke the 19th century European poet. Through other poets such as: Goethe, Blake, Dickinson, Takahashi, and Buson, the list is long. I found life after physical death in their words and I knew my mother was still alive and focused on another stream of her consciousness. In 1998 I began to write poetry and I write and live it everyday since my awakening. My blue print of consciousness has become a physical life.
My words come from that blueprint, and at times they are hard to understand with this focused consciousness, but at some point in time they begin to make sense. My purpose in this physical life is to experience the variety and complexity that physical consciousness gives me, so I can expand the other aspects of my self. My poetry is the vehicle that comes from the past, and is painted in the future so I can ride in my now. It is my spirit's song of love.
As I begin my yearly collection of Short Sleeves A Book For Friends (this is the fourth year) I do it with joy, gratitude and acceptance. I invite all of you to feel that blueprint; feel your unknown reality, by tasting mine. Yours will be different and diverse but it is as valid as mine. Now is the moment for remembering and I offer my work as universal service to All There Is.
From the 2009 Collection of Short Sleeves A Book For Friends here is Spirit?s Song:
Spirit's Song
Continuous Roots Mesh
Within Me
Interlocking Consciousness Awakens
To The Sound Of Forgiveness
Ripening Seeds Of Desire
Fall Freely Through The
Fertile Soil Of Oneness
And Plant Themselves
In Reality
Each Self Dances
In Endless Harmony
Rotating Partners
Hold Patterns Of Remembering
Tightly In Place
As The Wind Of Change
Blows Its Spirit Song
Through The Tree Of Life
I Taste One Fruit Of Gratitude
And One Sip Of Life
In The Cup
Of Being Human
www.shortsleeves.net
www.halmanogue.blogspot.com
