Thomas A. Phelan
A Point Beyond Silence is a compilation of the author's award winning poems for which Mr. Phelan received the prestigious Author's Award from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Tom Phelan has been published in literary magazinesanthologies and newspapers throughout the United States. His poems have also been published in Ireland. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in poetry, won 7 Golden Poet awards, 3 Poet of the Year from the International Library of Poetry and listed in Writers, Editors and Poetas Who's Who. Phelan was featured in the New York Times 'On Books column'. He is the author of Cornucopia of Life, Love, Myth and Dreams, Modern Haiku and Man In The Shadows: Diary of a Private Eye. He is presently editing his new books Jukaido, Cusp of Aquarius and Indian Lore.Tom is veteran of WWII and the Korean War. He is a former detective with the New York City Police Dept.; host of 'That's The Way It Is' on radio and TV.
A BODY CRIES
I've been in hell so long
I can't get rid of the devil.
I'm a junky . . .mainliner
Dilaudid, Marijuana
Heroin, cocaine
Junky, that's my name.
Wish I knew what to do
Always locked in a cell.
There is no place to go.
It's worse than being in hell.
I pray night and day
Hoping to find a way
To get rid of this pain
And come back to life again.
My mother's heart breaks
When she looks in my eyes.
From outside my room
I hear her tearful sighs.
The monkey's jumpin'
Muscles achin'
Head's thumpin'
Bones're breakin'.
If I'm lucky . . . maybe
I'll die.
