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Tag: action

We Aren’t Really Talking Anyway

It doesn’t matter, anyway,
if you don’t hear a word I say.
And if you hear, why don’t you listen?
Does it matter what you’re missing,
if the words there in your presence
don’t much matter. Does it make sense
to pretend that conversation’s
what we after? It’s a new situation.

Does it matter, anyway,
exactly who says what, and when?
What difference whose idea it was,
when hopes and dreams and thoughts and prayers
all lead to nothing without action.

Why don’t I shut up?

17 NOV 2025

© 2025, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Talking Heads: sonnet (Sicilian)

Who in the world do we believe we are,
imagining our words alone suffice
to change the future’s course or shift our stars?
How much can you expect for that small price?
So little fuel will take us just so far.
What’s worth achieving takes some sacrifice;
the answer is never a lower bar,
unless your goal is a fool’s paradise.

There is no evolution of the mind
without some kind of action made out loud.
It’s not enough that a thing is conceived,
a mere equation with all terms defined.
So you can talk – no reason to be proud.
It’s only by your acts you are believed.

07 Jul 2025

© 2025, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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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.

Wake up! There is not much time to lose.
You are defined by the path you choose,
not how you echo the world’s sad news
or crumble with each impact or bruise.
With every breath you must either stand or fall,
and only now exists for us all.
There is no option for you to snooze.

04 Jun 2025

© 2025, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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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

© 2025, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Go Ask Alice

Do without doing,
make something from nothing;
recycle, repurpose,
revise on and conquer.

Gather resources,
interpret instructions;
imagine assembly
as other-directed.

Practice inclusion,
leave nothing untended;
let symmetry guide you
off-balance at times.

Do, or do not do,
remake while unmaking;
there is no old recipe
for what is baking.

Music and dancing,
bring drums for the solstice;
plug in the instruments,
join a new party.

Practice at something:
being and nothingness.
Wake in the morning;
the coffee is on.

for Alice Guffey Miller

26 JUN 2017

© 2017, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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The Use of Dreams: rondine

What is the use of dreams devoid of action,
that linger on as hopes before they die;
and while they last, convince us if we try
that in the end we will find satisfaction.
Such wistful shadows taunt us to distraction;
lost in the mist, we separate in factions
and dissipate and fade out, by and by.
    What is the use?

If dreams and hope are to have any traction,
they must inspire our deeds, not just reactions.
We must find rousing songs, not lullabies,
and exercise our wings if we would fly.
If not, life is continuing subtraction;
    what is the use?

11 MAY 2017

© 2017, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Ode to Joy

Joy doesn’t “find” you;
good fortune won’t light
like bluebirds of happiness
on your slumped shoulders.

Joy doesn’t come up
like flowers in a garden,
some sudden epiphany
before your eyes.

Joy doesn’t “find” you;
it happens, on purpose,
the moment you seek it
in something you are.

Joy, much like happiness,
self, and fulfillment,
aren’t simply out there
like lottery picks.

Joy doesn’t “find” you.
You “find” it – by looking,
by acting according
to what you would be.

Joy doesn’t “find” you.
It does no good hoping,
unless you start moving
beyond listless dreams.

04 JAN 2017

© 2017, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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