Mythos & Marginalia

2015 – 2025: a decade of days

a daily breath

  • It’s not nothing

    I would like to think it is nothing, at least I’d like to try. I know I can’t, but I will fool myself into believing it was less than what it is (I’m gullible that way).
       Still I know, deep down, it was more than what I was expecting. Certainly it was more than what I was prepared for.
       It’s always something; really, anything is.
       There is something in anything, worthwhile or not, that captures your imagination or sends your soul circling.
       Nothing matters then.
       It is always more than what you were counting on, even when there is nothing to compare it to.
       Always unlike anything else, you try to twist and turn it into something familiar, or something you can relate to, all the while knowing that nothing has been like that, or felt like this: ever.
       Yeah, it’s like that.
       It’s not nothing, but it can’t be everything. . . or maybe it is.

    © 2017 j.g. lewis

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  • a deeper conversation

    Ever the questions, 

    no response, until now. In the wake 

    of all that happened all that time ago; 

    even recently, as details were 

    unearthed convincingly.

    Negligently we accept responsibility 

    for secrets and sins unacknowledged.

    The government, the Church, 

    the children. The shock of it all. 

    Tears now stain history books. Truth.

    A deeper conversation. 

    We talked about it, yesterday.

    Too long society, 

    more specifically “we”, have turned

    a blind eye to ways of a world 

    we thought we never knew.

    Lord knows what they were thinking 

    and did nothing.

     

    10/01/2024                                                                                                             j.g.l.

     

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  • Mondays are just young Fridays

    It matters.

    Truth takes longer to admit

    than it does to commit.

    We now live with truth;

    shame of the sins we know,

    generations of pain 

    will forever show.

    Truth.

     

    Truth and Reconciliation.

    September 30 is an annual federal holiday in Canada to recognize the damage caused by the residential school system, including to families and communities still affected by the lasting trauma.

     

     

    09/30/2024                                                                                                          j.g.l.

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  • a reason for being

    Each word, brush stroke, and
    movement (physical or musical), 
    conveys a maze of emotions, a 
    moral or motive, 
                                  and 
    it does so with intention. Art 
    has a purpose, even in the most 
    conservative or mundane setting, 
    it brightens walls, pumps life 
    into the our superficially sterile 
    environment, 
                            filling space 
    often reserved for mediocrity. Art, 
    any art, is a celebration, an occasion, 
    a happening or happenstance, 
    behind which rests a soul 
                               struggling 
    to release frustration and fact.
    The premise of art 
                                     is simple, 
    though in all its complexity 
    lives are lived and memories retold. 
    Sometimes the moments are 
    hardly even bold, but in 
    each nuance there is blood rushing, 
    and a voice dying (no, living)
    to be heard. 
    Art, any art, 
                         is an attempt 
    not to dream, and not to believe, 
    but to breathe. 
                       Art is a reason for being. 
    To uncap your mind, and 
                     open your eyes, 
    is to brush away the cobwebs, and 
    clear out the channels limiting 
    society’s authentic ways. To embrace, 
    or accept, 
    or even acknowledge effort, 
    is to allow a word to exist on 
    a weather-beaten page, an abstract 
    concept to play out on another plane, 
    a sound to survive yet another day, 
                                  and a dance to be 
    negotiated through an
    inevitably cramped space.
    Art, any 
    art, 
           is communication 
            if not 
    confrontation. 
    Address your demons, speak up 
    for those who choose not to, 
                                     push back 
    minds who see investment and value 
    as only monetary concerns. 
    Increase your worth. Don’t let art 
              become just another choice, 
    shape your work 
    in the rhythm of a voice.

    ©2016 j.g. lewis

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  • 09/27/2024

    Neither common sense nor familiar adage holds true. On this day.

       What it seems, all it appears to be, is uncommonly incorrect, consistently confounding, and occasionally borders on delusion (even deceit), despite its honesty.

         Trust your instincts.

       Your vision may be blurred, or the definite perspective is altered by subtle expectations yet, deep in your gut, you know what you are doing.

       Look past the obstacles; do not be deterred by the follies or fantasies of others. They do not know what you truly do, nor have any knowledge of your clear intentions. 

       Be confident in your own wisdom, it is both personal and acutely accurate. Your impulse is far greater than your capabilities.

    09/27/2024                                                                                                        j.g.l.

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