The answers are far less certain
than even last week, to all those
perennial questions or solutions
you might seek.
What do you believe, or
what do you believe in?
Come Monday, you have fewer
questions than you had last week.
For a while there are less doubts
in what you believe.
Whom do you believe in,
and who believes in you?
11/18/2024 j.g.l.
We want to know what
we don’t know, or hadn’t thought of,
or forgot.
What mattered then,
or what mattered when, shifts over time.
We notice.
Perception is what you don’t see.
Deception is what know.
You see it differently through your aloneness.
The truth behind a lie,
you question how and why.
It made sense.
Anticipation keeps us waiting
for only so long. Will it matter
if you felt it never did?
© 2021 j.g. lewis
Slow down: even with the ideas that come to quicky. Take the time to acknowledge the feelings that arrive, as they arrive.
Write it down. How else will you remember what you were thinking?
Print neatly. You hardly understand the thoughts at the time, why make it more difficult to comprehend weeks or years from now?
Follow your own logic; only you need to truly make sense of what is happening, or all that has happened.
Pay attention to the lessons of the past. Be mindful that not all are worth repeating.
Clarity. Make corrections as you go. Flaws become more difficult to correct the longer you live with them.
11/14/2024 j.g.l.
I'm like a pencil;
sometimes sharp,
most days
well-rounded,
other times
dull or
occasionally
broken.
Still I write.
j.g. lewis
is a writer/photographer in Toronto.
Her poems have always offered a glimpse into the questioning mind, and there have been biographies and textbook studies, but the new movie A Quiet Passion now adds more clarity into the life of Emily Dickinson.
I’m not a big fan of period pieces, but Dickinson has long been a poetry “crush” of mine. I recognized, and related to, the loneliness of the poems when I was first introduced in about Grade 7.
I knew little of her life, then, but was in awe of the complexities of the themes, dedicated structure and, for the most part, brevity of her work.
The movie, beautifully filmed with gorgeous period costuming, paints the picture we know of the American poet’s reclusive life, and shows her uncompromising style as it comes to life on her handwritten page.
Cynthia Nixon plays the role so well, the dialogue is true to the times, and the script is more than sprinkled with Dickinson’s eloquent verse.
Dickinson (whose fame never arrived until after her death) lived a quiet life, but a life worth celebrating. A Quiet Passion does this so well.
j.g.l.
I’m like a pencil;
sometimes sharp,
most days
well-rounded,
other times
dull or
occasionally
broken.
Still I write.
j.g. lewis
is a writer/photographer in Toronto.
2 replies on “Worth Watching”
She was my first favorite poet. Looking forward to seeing this!
You will enjoy. It’s like putting images to words you know so well.