Five Poems by Jim Lewis (j.lewis)

  

august has whispered

 

august has whispered

her soft summer sighs

into northern dreams

hinting at fading heat

as care-free love

burgeons to harvest

 

august has whispered

seductive budding blossoms

into southern meditations

faint echoes of green lust

that will move earth

pushing past all restraint

 

august has whispered

melancholic murmurs

of verses virtually infinite

rushes of last breath

reluctant to leave

this field of poetry

knowing she must give way

must always give way

to september

 

 

extinguished

for Firestone Feinberg

 

every flame begins

with the smallest of sparks

some flicker and die

in seconds, while others

smoulder silently until

leaping, dancing, laughing

they erupt in fiery hues

 

but every flame feeds

on the same basic elements

oxygen, fuel, and heat

lose any of the three

and it is gone

 

poetry was his oxygen

kindness his fuel

community the heat

that warmed his heart

 

or was he all of these

to all of us

 

we watched

helpless to keep

his flame alive

marking how it

dwindled

flickered

faded

to a glowing ember

a spiral of smoke

of spirit ascending

lingering only briefly

to say goodbye

 

her father's shadow

 

i knew the story well enough

unwed mother stranded

in southern california

the daughter who grew up empty

hungry to know something

anything about the man

who left her behind

 

that girl became an in-law

when i found the right blonde

at the right time

and did the right thing

 

a lifetime later and father found

though too late to know him living

we had hoped the emptiness gone

 

so at one sunday visit,

with wife and her mother

looking through the past

preserved in black and white

i paid little attention to the

names and dates and places

of my mother-in-law's musings

until she held up a photo

read the scrawl on the back

and remarked

"that's my father's shadow"

 

sonnet of envy

 

i envy the sun that touches this tree

the rain that washes its leaves

the ground that surrounds the tangle of roots

the blossoms that beckon the bees

 

i envy the wind that whispers its love

the fog that conceals every bough

the birds that find refuge, safety, and peace

the moonlight, the fresh clinging snow

 

i envy the winter, the summer, the spring

but most of all autumn's caress

that kisses the canopy, urging the tree

to put on her bright golden dress

 

i envy all things that commune with this tree

i envy them all, as they envy me

 

relevance

 

born below the bottom rung

on the ladder to success

raised outside the walls

of affluence and ease

 

his daily acts of kindness

though unknown to the masses

give him a relevance that extends

past the end of his unpaved street

Jim Lewis (j.lewis) - is an internationally published poet, musician, and nurse practitioner. His poetry and music reflect the complexity of human interactions, drawing inspiration from his experience in healthcare. When he is not otherwise occupied, he is often on a kayak, exploring and photographing the waterways near his home in California.