Your Cluttered Thoughts

April 28

How many relationships
have been remembered, or explored,
in the attempt to forge a perfect poem?
Memory reminds you of your place.
It doesn’t matter, now or then,
who devised your initial reaction
to the many sorry mistakes.

How many regrets,
how many evil thoughts, forsaken
sentiments or countless untruths
have you counted on, or encountered, in
an effort to scratch out your prose into
a form another human may accept, yet
allow you to go on living?

How many mornings, how many
pencils, how much coffee, has been wasted
trying to find the right word?
Each purposeful letter you surrender to
a page has been there, here, or
elsewhere before.
If only your cluttered thoughts.

No poem is perfect, even those from bards
you envy or admire. They too had faults
as countless as your own.
It is through collective imperfection that
we learn and continue learning.
Without flaws we have so very
little to write about.

April is Poetry Month
we’ve been here before

cloud songs

         What lies in wait
   behind the dubious distractions?
       Eventualities are as endless as
   intentions.      Brighter days ahead
   if you allow yourself to believe in
                what is not always there.
   It can be.
       Every day is a possibility.


12/27/2024                                                           j.g.l.

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December 23

Mondays are just young Fridays
```
I’m like a pencil;
sometimes sharp,
most days
well-rounded,
other times 
dull or
occasionally
broken.
Still I write.
```
For almost ten years I’ve been hosting Mythos & Marginalia and, for the most part, I’ve been writing every damn day.

Over the past month, I’ve been working on a redesign of this site, adapting the style for easier access and a more complete viewing experience. There are still tweaks required (I discover more each day) and slight alterations to text and format but, for the most part, the back-end work is nearly complete.

In the process, I’ve had the opportunity to review a decade’s worth of my poetry, photography, essays, and fortune cookie philosophies that have appeared on this page over the months and years gone by. It has inspired me to alter my plans for 2025 and present a new “project” beginning January 1^st. More details soon.

In the meantime, please have a look around. Click on the reformatted archives section near the bottom of the screen or try the ‘search’ selection right below that. The “About” section explains a little more about me and where or what I am (or have been). Feel free to comment as you go, I enjoy keeping in touch.

There is a ‘subscribe’ button down there as well. Many of you have subscribed in the past, but the feature has had issues over the years and the notices simply stopped. Even if your name and email is still on some long-lost mailing list, I’d encourage you to, again, sign up. There will be a newsletter soon; all part of my 2025 project.

Thank you for reading. I hope you find the new format easier to navigate and understand.

11/23/2024. j.g. lewis
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December 26

my wish for peace

How can we speak of peace when war rages in parts of this world, even on Christmas Day?

As unequivocally unjust is the appalling, mean-spirited political propaganda on this side of the ocean; it never ends.

Yesterday, as I did the days before, I repeated, again, my wish for peace.

Today I am left humbled and humiliated.

How can we dream of a world not polarized by hate?

We can only try.

One by one, we can only dream.

Has there ever been a time, in our lifetimes, where peace is more important than it is now?

12/26/2024 j.g.l.

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December 22

Solstice Blessings

In North America, we have come out of the longest and darkness night of the year.

From here on in it only gets brighter.

Deify the light; acknowledge the dim.

Christmas is but a few days away, the high holidays close, and the spirit of the season is building. In all our cultures, there are so many good and wonderful days ahead.

I wish you and your families and friends — those who are close and them far away — everlasting love and community in the days and years to follow.

deep peace

j.g. lewis

12/22/2024

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December 19

speak up

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