A little cold, little wet,
a little tired and yet
I am here. Still,
full of wonder.
The morning chill leaves
little to the imagination
and much less
to hope for.
Expected, perhaps, as it
always is, this time, this
season is only what
we ask of it.
11/21/2024 j.g.l.
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
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.
Sometimes you’ve got to go right back to the basics to understand where you are now.
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been listening to Confessing The Blues, a compilation of American music handpicked and curated by The Rolling Stones. I was gifted the deluxe boxed set: 5 x 10” vinyl records gorgeously packaged, with an essay by Colin Larkin, artist biographies, photographs, and artwork.
There are songs about redemption, heartache, and celebration. The blues is emotion expressed in 12 bars, or less. This package is a history lesson in music that matters.
It is all about the music.
“The blues is the single most important musical genre that is fundamental to everything we hear. It is the foundation of folk, jazz, rock n’ roll, soul, heavy rock, country rock, heavy metal, hip-hop and urban R&B,” says Larkin in the liner notes.
This is the music The Rolling Stones (like many young British bands of the era) were inspired by. This is the music the band borrowed heavily from.
This is music to be celebrated, from Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson, to Chuck Berry and Elmore James. Every artist in this series left an indelible mark on American music.
What I’ve found is that I’m not only listening to the boxed set, but I’ve been inspired to flip through my records and discs and listen to music I haven’t played in a while.
Yes, I’ve got the summertime blues, and I am enjoying every note.
A portion of the profits from sales of Confessing The Blues are donated to Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation, a Chicago-based organization that promotes, protects and preserves the blues.
07/07/2019 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.