Ever the darkness, every night or
early morn, a moment for chance,
the time to begin.
Still, we wait.
Incessantly.
We do it again and again, enough
or a lot or as much as we can
if we care to admit it.
Why?
Can’t a shade of mystery simply
take hold, whether we like it
or not?
Must we always seek familiarity?
10/21/2024 j.g.l.
The Moon hangs low,
yet the Sun still rises.
Each day
we have another chance
to shine a little brighter.
Rise up.
Be radiant.
© 2019 j.g. lewis
Today might not be what it is
without yesterday being all
that it was.
In a succession of events,
unplanned or programmed,
rarely do we consider
what has happened,
as it happens.
Sometimes we speak less
about things that matter
as we think we have
more time, as such.
Oftentimes
we do not speak of
things we should
as they are happening,
in the time that remains.
In the time we are given,
the present persists.
10/15/2024 j.g.l.
I'm like a pencil;
sometimes sharp,
most days
well-rounded,
other times
dull or
occasionally
broken.
Still I write.
j.g. lewis
is a writer/photographer in Toronto.
My daughter sent me a handful of my old records this week and in the bunch was Innervisions: Stevie Wonder’s 1973 Grammy-winning Album of the Year.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to the album, though I did often. Innervisions was one of a few 8-track tapes that came with us on a week long ski trip in 1977. It’s one of those few albums you could listen to over and over and never tire of. It was a record I bought immediately when I returned home from the trip..
It is that kind of an album.
You can talk about Wonder’s musical genius and ability to play all of the instruments on most of the album, but lyrically Innervisions went to a new level. Wonder got political, questioning religion and his country’s leader and culture.
The socially conscious words on songs like He’s Mista Know-It-All, Jesus Children of America and Higher Ground made you think. Living For The City speaks to the systemic racism that existed then as it does now.
Almost 50 years later, nothing much has changed.
The album might even sound better now.
06/14/2020 j.g.l.
I’m like a pencil;
sometimes sharp,
most days
well-rounded,
other times
dull or
occasionally
broken.
Still I write.
j.g. lewis
is a writer/photographer in Toronto.