Author

John E Marks

@johnemarksesq

articles: 108
total claps: 15,634
top claps: 451
avg read: 1.0 min
paywalled: 107
active: 2022-12-09 → 2026-07-26

Wiki topics

✍️ · Writing & Creative · 106 LIT · Literature & Writing · 103 💑 · Relationships · 8 🕊️ · Religion · 7 GEN · Genomics & Sequencing · 7 🧘 · Spirituality · 6 💪 · Fitness & Wellness · 4 GNM · Genome · General · 3

Top tags

#poetry ·102 #catharsis-chronicles ·22 #the-lark ·20 #the-howling-owl ·20 #scrittura ·15 #daesh ·7 #the-mad-river ·7 #genocide ·7 #forced-conversion ·6 #suicide ·5

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · Scrittura

The Boatman

life on a roll

Dec 12, 2024 · 1 min read · 451 claps paywalled #boatman #poacher #stipple

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · Scrittura

ICELIGHT

Day after grey day the ice stayed hard; the world remained unfriendly and cold

Nov 25, 2025 · 1 min read · 377 claps paywalled #icelight #freez #visionaary

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · The Howling Owl

Angelus Bell

— circles of uninscribed sound —

Jan 25, 2023 · 1 min read · 373 claps paywalled #angelus #bell #resistance

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · The Howling Owl

Run for your life

Light up, light up As if you have a choice

Mar 26, 2026 · 1 min read · 355 claps paywalled #run #winter #exculpate

HUM SOC MDA

JO John E Marks · Catharsis Chronicles

A Whole Civilisation Will Die

Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds —the motto of Zoroastrianism*

May 03, 2026 · 1 min read · 348 claps paywalled #zoroastrianism #civilization #sufi

LIF HUM SOC MDA

JO John E Marks · The Howling Owl

Body on a Beach

No one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.

Nov 12, 2025 · 1 min read · 341 claps paywalled #refugees #children #killed

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · The Howling Owl

An inception into art

Inanimate objects seemed endowed with two or three senses, if not five.

Jan 07, 2026 · 1 min read · 331 claps paywalled #turner #golden-embers #suicide

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · The Howling Owl

Born again

the old bray of my heart

Jan 07, 2026 · 1 min read · 326 claps paywalled #my-heart #flattery #deception

HUM LIF MDA

JO John E Marks · The Howling Owl

Wildflowers

words born in fond recall

Jul 01, 2026 · 1 min read · 321 claps paywalled #suicide #friendship #seasons

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · The Lark

Fabled

In fairy tales monsters exist to be a manifestation of something that we need to understand

Feb 23, 2026 · 1 min read · 315 claps paywalled #fable #myths #magik

SCI MDA

JO John E Marks · Catharsis Chronicles

Heart Murmurs

After poisoning him with words

Apr 17, 2026 · 1 min read · 315 claps paywalled #heart #murmur #full-pink-moon

TCH HUM MED MDA

JO John E Marks · Scrittura

Arriving where we started

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” TS Eliot

Aug 12, 2025 · 1 min read · 314 claps paywalled #cancer #life #poetry

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · Catharsis Chronicles

Adamantine

refuse to be broken

Jun 25, 2025 · 1 min read · 293 claps paywalled #yazidi #forced-conversion #slavery

LIF HUM AI MDA

JO John E Marks · The Howling Owl

Dolorous days

In whispers soft, shadows creep, Dolorous days, the depths of sleep, Mythic tales of derring-do Seize the day, no foreboding thrall, For…

Sep 25, 2024 · 1 min read · 293 claps paywalled #dolorous #dolores-o-riordan #carpe-diem

GEN HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · Scrittura

INFECTED

I, too, was potentially everything at birth. I, too, was stunted, narrowed, warped by my environment, my outcroppings of heredity. Sylvia…

Jun 13, 2026 · 1 min read · 282 claps paywalled #genetics #inheritance #wash-us-in-the-blood

HUM AI MDA

JO John E Marks · Catharsis Chronicles

The Old Drag of My Heart

I lift my eyes, and all is not born again

Oct 16, 2025 · 1 min read · 282 claps paywalled #infant-mortality #never-seen-the-sea #rook

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · Catharsis Chronicles

Fearless: Gone Native

“May God keep you away from the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger, and the revenge of the Afghans.” Alexander the Great

Oct 23, 2025 · 2 min read · 274 claps paywalled #ezedi #mesopotamia #daesh

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · Catharsis Chronicles

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

leftovers of the sword

Feb 07, 2026 · 1 min read · 271 claps paywalled #janissaries #constaninople #forced-conversion

HUM SPR MDA

JO John E Marks · Scrittura

Water tree

Let the rhythm of the water set your soul free

May 12, 2026 · 1 min read · 260 claps paywalled #water-trees #swamp #alligators

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · Catharsis Chronicles

Rain

Rainy day, dream away

Mar 04, 2026 · 1 min read · 250 claps paywalled #raun #mild #persistent

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · The Howling Owl

Yezedi — 2014–2025

“I can still calculate what my body was worth to those who bought and sold it” Yezedi woman taken by Daesh as a sex slave.

Aug 27, 2025 · 1 min read · 247 claps paywalled #yazidi #daesh #genocide

HUM LIF MDA

JO John E Marks · The Lark

Flecks of Grey

Sometimes you meet those people you can’t forget — those are your friends — Mark Twain

Feb 05, 2026 · 1 min read · 233 claps paywalled #fleck #grey #friendship

HUM SPR MDA

JO John E Marks · Catharsis Chronicles

The End

And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. Revelations 20:4

Mar 20, 2026 · 1 min read · 226 claps paywalled #mosul #assyrian #christian

HUM MED LIF MDA

JO John E Marks · The Mad River

A psychiatric disorder

would you love me till I’m dead?

Mar 04, 2026 · 1 min read · 214 claps paywalled #psychiatric-disorders #gleaned #disorders

HUM MDA

JO John E Marks · The Lark

The Way of the Cloud

Light is therefore color — JMW Turner

Mar 30, 2025 · 1 min read · 204 claps paywalled #turner #cloud #drift