Mythos & Marginalia

2015 – 2025: a decade of days

  • Bending Light

    Refraction. Reflection.
    Gradient tones of expression,
    landscapes or history,
    our light rarely follows a straight line.
    Curves. Diagonally,
    adjustment required in space or
    sign, it seeps through cracks
    moves forcefully beyond sublime.

    Unusually unaware,
    we cannot control the capacity, or
    silence, of corresponding darkness.
    An unlikely presence of another mind.
    Intimacy initially.
    To those who dare expose themselves,
    our light will not be altered
    but eternally fortified.

    Transcendent existence,
    born unto an incidental state, we
    cannot separate stigma from strata.
    Dust on the wind, particles of matter.
    Fragmentation, alienation,
    morals to immortality, holding tight
    all we believe is crucial.
    Our life rarely follows a straight line.

    ©2018 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: Bending Light

  • Necessity or Greed

                      Concrete and iron foundations give way
         to steel and glass structures growing ever higher

         each decade.

         Our skyline swallows up the landscape,

         shadows of the buildings below grow longer, taller

         indefinitely.

                           A reflection is merely what is there
                                                 after the damage is done.

         Urban renewal, construction cranes and condominiums
         and more vacant office towers.
         Overdevelopment, excavation,
         replacement or gentrification, population speculation.

                             This is history more than yesterday.
    What will we know when it has all been replaced?

         Our future overlooks its direction by a necessity or greed

         we can no longer imagine.

     

    © 2023 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: Necessity or Greed

  • Amen

    I will call it a prayer, for lack of
    a better word. It will hold more hope
    than a wish; more reality than a dream.
    It shall be spiritual, yes, but
    not religious, certainly not
    with a capital R. That kind of thing
    may have its place, but not here.
    Not now. Religion does not
    allow for differences, as I see it, and
    neither do they. Most would prefer
    to have everything go their way.
    My prayer, as I will call it, is one
    for respect and appreciation
    of our differences.
    Not one of us is the same and none
    of us are to blame. It is as it is, but
    need not be what it was. In my prayer,
    and it should not seem like a dream,
    our differences would not divide us,
    but make us stronger as we allow
    an increased capacity of forgiveness
    in thought and in action.
    Acceptance comes from
    surrounding ourselves with those who
    may chose an unfamiliar destination,
    wear a different colour of skin, or
    identify by another sexual orientation
    than the one we have known.
    My prayer, and my hope, is one where
    we will believe in others
    as much as ourselves.
    This is the prayer that keeps me giving
    and breathing, this is a dream
    that keeps me hoping and believing.

    Amen

    © 2019 j.g. lewis

     

    Leave a comment: Amen

  • thereafter

                            

                               The Father they speak of accepts
                                    the scent, custom or tradition,
                                                         of burnt offerings

                        incense                                   incensed

                                   God shall know
                                     thou shall not

                                       confuse disclosures

                 ‘Father, I have sinned’
                 common confession
                           for those who

                                    do not understand

                                        a candle lit
                                        provides protection from the flame

                                       Evil ways

              cast no doubt
              on disbelievers

                          The silent thereafter hangs
                           as smoke above an alter
                           I know so little about

    © 2023 j.g. lewis

     

    Leave a comment: thereafter

  • In Camera

    This battered face prefers
    the other side of the camera,
    watching, waiting, silently
    from the side. An observer,
    looking on. Looking out.
    These impaired eyes have
    witnessed so much, perhaps
    too much. Injustice, imbalance,
    all in plain view. Images
    flow through me, captured
    for posterity. An honesty easier
    recorded than memorized.
    Focused on what is before me
    more convenient than looking
    within, where I know, and will
    not be surprised at, what goes on
    behind the camera. Damning
    view of humanity, insincerity,
    imbalanced injustice remains
    with me. The unknowns,
    knowingly stowed away,
    referenced only occasionally,
    when in disbelief at what
    I have experienced. Privately.
    Honestly. Silently. Memory.
    Without the light. In camera.

    © 2017 j.g. lewis

    April is Poetry Month
    something to believe

     

    Leave a comment: In Camera