Author Archives: JRL

Wake Up: gwawdonyn hir

Wake up! The dawn is slowly creeping
behind the darkness. Just stop sleeping.
Dry those nightmare tears; end your weeping,
else your other dreams worth keeping
lose momentum and never see the light.
Right now is the only time to fight.
Please heed your urgent alarm’s beeping. Continue reading

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The Pursuit of Happiness: gwawdodyn

To pursue happiness is the dream
America is built on, it seems. The constant search, living beyond our means, an old wineskin stretched at the seams. But God help those who try and succeed: we have a psychological need, not to deny winning in terms of wealth, but to hate any whose words and deeds suggest real success is in the mind, Continue reading

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Good Morning: gloss (glosa)

You say you’re woke because your eyes
are open and you’re out of bed,
and yet describing what you see, you fail
to see yourself and choose instead
to catalog the failings of the world
that won’t conform to how you feel
and what you really want to see,
since reality has no appeal. Continue reading

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Nothing Left to Lose: ghazal

When you first discover love, you find something to lose;
not quite yourself, a place apart that you’re afraid to lose.

But then you realize that time itself is meaningless and small,
an artificial sense of space too infinite to lose.
Inside each single moment, in that space between your breaths,
exists an entire universe where we find what we lose. Continue reading

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Nothing Matters: free verse

If nothing is a thing at all
then nothing comes from something;
that’s logic if you presuppose
that something there is that doesn’t
love the void:
that a thing that is cannot become
if there’s no seed or spark or speck
from which it comes to being. Continue reading

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No One Writes Letters: epistle

Dear reader: do you wonder what
the point may be in all of this?
Why do we bother keeping track
of who said what to whom and such?

On an entire stretch of sandy beach
we seek a single special grain,
imagining some magic quest
in which we play the hero’s role. Continue reading

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Travel Plans: englyn unodl union

In retrospect, I should have known:
if the world changes, you have grown. Doesn’t mean
it’s all neat and clean. You’re shown
maybe a thing or two, alone.

You have a choice. Choose to care.
It matters how you get there; the end
depends on it. So beware:
life’s not a solo affair. Continue reading

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