Mythos & Marginalia

2015 – 2025: a decade of days


j.g.lewis

  • write on

    As of late, for reasons as varied as they are non-existent, I have not been writing in the manner of which I have come to expect of myself. I am neither as prolific nor as detailed as, I feel, I usually am.

         My poetry, while still insightful, does not command the length or breadth I feel I am capable of. Revisions to a manuscript I have toiled away on for some time have become painful (perhaps a sign that the work is closer to completion than I care to acknowledge), and my mind wanders to another project that requires the same diligence.

       My daily writing is less than it once was (I feel guilty about that), and even the scant sentences I jot down in my journal seem to only document my time here on earth. Nothing extravagant, nothing more than a slight glimpse of where I am. Nothing that memorable, sadly.

       I’ve been feeling for months that I am ready to embark on another kind of writing but have yet to determine exactly what that might be. I am full or ideas, characters, dialogue and circumstance, but it doesn’t quite feel like it has the backbone it needs to pull me in a certain direction. I even, a few weeks back, bought a fresh new notebook to keep these thoughts separate from all the others. The notes I have included in this book are random, undeveloped, at times personal, and (as of yet) make little sense. I reread these notes, almost daily, and I am inspired enough to clarify or expand on certain streams of thought, but it needs a more definite direction.

       Perhaps I do as well?

     

    11/17/2024                                                                                                                          j.g.l.

  • deception

    We want to know what
    we don’t know, or hadn’t thought of,
    or forgot.

    What mattered then,
    or what mattered when, shifts over time.
    We notice.

    Perception is what you don’t see.
    Deception is what know.
    You see it differently through your aloneness.

    The truth behind a lie,
    you question how and why.
    It made sense.

    Anticipation keeps us waiting
    for only so long. Will it matter
    if you felt it never did?

     

    © 2021 j.g. lewis

  • nevertheless

    What brings you here, anywhere

    really? Out of habit, curiosity, or

    happenstance? Each one of us 

    has patterns; a nature of being. 

    It is how we experience our time

    in this place, on this planet, in

    this city or another. Confusion.

    A delusion? We are grounded by 

    behaviours, many of which we 

    will not realize or acknowledge. 

    Primarily, it is how we function. 

    Action or response to any given 

    situation. Stimulation, capitulation, 

    barely interpretation of that which

    surrounds us. Still, here we are. 

    Nevertheless. In the midst of it all.

     

    11/15/2024                                                                                                                  j.g.l.

  • acts of clarity

    Slow down: even with the ideas that come to quicky. Take the time to acknowledge the feelings that arrive, as they arrive.

     

    Write it down. How else will you remember what you were thinking?

     

    Print neatly. You hardly understand the thoughts at the time, why make it more difficult to comprehend weeks or years from now?

     

    Follow your own logic; only you need to truly make sense of what is happening, or all that has happened.

     

    Pay attention to the lessons of the past. Be mindful that not all are worth repeating.

     

    Clarity. Make corrections as you go. Flaws become more difficult to correct the longer you live with them.

     

    11/14/2024                                                                                                                  j.g.l.

  • Only Structures

    The city has no direction.

    Even the streets take you nowhere.

     

    Sprawling. Stopping. Rethinking, recovering. 

    A destination as much as a distinction, home

    to so many. Honoured by so few.

     

    Only a place, only for a while, only to those 

    who wish to be somewhere else.

     

    Identity. Community. Immunity for some.

    Isolation within a population, advancing beyond

    the imagination of so many.

     

    To be a stranger is to remain present.

    Loneliness. There is always a place.

     

    This search for significance takes us

    to inappropriate places: this city is full of them.

    Each street. Every building.

     

    The homes we pass by, the contents of which 

    we do not know; or understand. Only structures.

     

    Will we find such a place where personal information 

    remains private property? Is it natural 

    or even possible?

     

    Overlooking common sense, stigma, and the 

    interpretation of others, can we arrive at a place where 

    data does not exist?

     

    How, then, will we document our days?

    Who will keep track of our shortcomings?

     

     

    © 2024 j.g. lewis