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Author: JRL

Tell Me Anything

In the silence coming down
at the dimming of the day,
something whispers on the breeze
and it takes my breath away.

Does it tell me anything
that I don’t already know?
Is it more than could have beens
and a couple told you sos?

In the silence of the night
after the sun has gone to bed,
something sings a simple song
that just echoes in my head.

When the words come on the wind
do they tickle in your ear?
Do they brush away the clouds
in the evening sky, so clear?

As the hours slip away
does the music slowly fade
into memory and myth,
ancient stories and charade?

In the silence, when you breathe
in the taste of new day,
something rests upon your tongue
but you’ve got nothing left to say.

Does it matter much at all,
what you mean and what you do?
Will the day continue on
without making much of you?

So the hours come and go,
yet the song still wants to play.
In the end, who really knows
whether it should be that way?

08 MAY 2025

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I Woke From What: cyhydedd naw ban

I woke from what the world is wanting:
a dream in which illusion, haunting,
makes promises it is not keeping
and hides its face when I am weeping.

With my eyes closed, my thinking slower,
I’m not immune to that great power
that would enslave me to its choices –
a sleeping puppet, meek and voiceless.

We must arise from that dreaming state;
Wake up now! The hour is growing late!
Before the twilight’s shadows creep in
to keep us docile, weak, and sleeping.

I wake and see the world is dying,
so I must act through living, trying
to change the small things I can, and must,
before this time is gone, and I am dust.

08 MAY 2025

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The Road to Find Out: cyhydedd hir

When do you find out
what life is about,
without any doubt
of its meaning?
How does it appear,
when you see it clear
and without your fear
intervening?

How do you just know?
Does a bright lamp glow,
or a fresh breeze blow,
giving you insight?
What do you do then,
in that moment when
you first awaken
into sunlight?

Who will you meet there,
out in that somewhere
beyond today’s cares
and your worry?
How will you know who
sees things like you do,
so clearly what’s true
and not blurry?

08 MAY 2025

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Spare Change: curtal sonnet

When you begin to want to make a change,
you may have no idea how to start.
In fact, your mind may feel lost and confused;
your friends may think you weird or just deranged,
and you’ll keep your own counsel, if you’re smart,
to keep yourself from being too abused.
Once your decision to proceed is made,
don’t take all their derision much to heart;
they will not understand the path you choose,
and you’ll be, when at last the hurting fades,
amused.

For you to change the world, you start within;
‘though some may see the need, so few will try,
and most will laugh and see what you become
as strange and most usual, a whim.
You may not even know them, by and by,
those who when you feel different, still seem numb,
and not as close to you as they now seem.
Still, you must find the rhythm of your drum,
and seek the source inside where your own dreams
come from.

07 MAY 2025

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Shout It Out Loud: complaint

So much of life is at the edge,
stuck on the stoop or on the ledge;
just talking to hear our voice speak,
we shout to stop appearing weak.

We gather friends around ourselves
from minions, imps, and fellow elves;
and muddle through from week to week.
We shout to stop appearing weak.

Through years of this and other things,
more up and down, and ’round we swing.
There’s no reward for being meek.
We shout to stop appearing weak.

Amongst the rabble we create
to build ourselves worth and estate,
we’ve grown nose-blind to our own reek.
We shout to stop appearing weak.

So much of time is spent and gone
with not much left to linger on.
What’s left of us is some cruel freak;
we shout to stop appearing weak.

And now what energy is left
we waste by feeling lost, bereft;
afraid of being an antique,
we shout to stop appearing weak.

What’s worse, we learn by finding fault,
our flavor soured by too much salt;
our mighty roar becomes a squeak:
we shout to stop appearing weak.

So many years, so many miles;
we just remember tears, not smiles,
’til we are judged by one critique:
we shout to stop appearing weak.

07 MAY 2025

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The Time is Now: common measure

The only time is now;
your thoughts and prayers and plans
imagining the future won’t
get you out of quicksand.

short measure

It’s movement that you need.
Look down – there at your feet,
is where you start out to the street.
You’ll need both strength and speed.

hymnal stanza

For the battle isn’t out somewhere,
waiting as your courage grows.
No, it’s here. You’ve haven’t got the time
for might-have-beens or clever told-you-sos.

long measure

What you believe is worth your living for –
that’s what’s at stake right now. Make no delay;
without you, its survival chance is poor.
The time is now. There is no other day.

long hymnal stanza

06 MAY 2025

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How Long Have I Seen: clogyrnach

When did I start see it first-hand,
the sickness creeping on our land?
I can tell you when:
I was maybe ten;
you begin
to understand.

What my first thought, that time I knew
that no one out there had a clue?
It’s easy. A child
can sense the defiled
in the wild.
That is true.

How long have I been at this war,
a fight for something else, for more
than my own winning?
Since the beginning,
still spinning,
evermore.

Why do I bother keeping on?
Why fight the weeds that choke the lawn?
What good being still,
while evil acts kill,
and free will
soon is gone?

05 MAY 2025


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