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.
There are few bands that I’ve listened to consistently for 40 plus years, with regularity. There are far fewer bands that have stayed intact that long; with the same members, performing the same original music.
Few bands that have remain dedicated to performing their music in their own unique style; free of trends and kowtowing to industry demands.
Rush was one of those bands.
This Canadian trio forged music on its own terms, uncompromising, diligent to the point of exacting, both live and in the studio.
You cannot deny the talents of front man and bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, but behind it all was the percussive magic of drummer Neil Peart and the lyrics that gave the sound its soul.
Together these three musicians were unparalleled.
The band stopped performing live in 2015, releasing its last studio album in 2012.
The oft asked question was whether the band would ever play together again, or whether there would be another album.
The questions were answered Friday when it was announced that drummer Neil Peart had died following a three-year battle with brain cancer.
As I read the news Friday, about his death earlier in the week, I went numb. The quote above, one of the first I read on my mobile device that afternoon, stuck with me.
This man — this band — never compromised. As a result, we were rewarded with decades of amazing music. Rush did what they did, and they did it well.
The band will forever be more than a footnote in the annals of music history.
Rush left an indelible mark.
I’m still listening.
01/12/2010 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.