Featured Poet: James Lawson Moore

Good afternoon and welcome to another feature Friday! Today is James Lawson Moore, returning with two new poems. I've only read a handful of his poetry but greatly enjoy it, and look forward to reading both his books, his latest dropping earlier this month.

BREAKING FROM DISCONTENT

Reciting beatific visions like prayers

from my past to protect me

in my present need;

my love comes pure like rain in spring,

but this is the new season of quiet discontent

and I am voracious for something 

to proclaim my soul.

No more words other than these:

free me quickly from myself, that I may

know finally something other than the same

old pain filtered through

each brand new day.

But even though I feast on this

my pain there is

still virtue and love and beauty to be had

among the other broken masterpieces—

joy is the antidote to this

wholly inconsequential

breaking;

come tomorrow I will know again

what it means to be put back

together again.

There’s a majesty in this world

for those who seek it.

TEMPORARY FEELING

A mix of greys and pinks and sepia undertones

paints the skyline this evening—

I try and take a snapshot

of what I’ve seen,

but it’s so late that it turns dark before I can

bring out the Polaroid camera.

So many precious moments reach out

to me from beyond the trees, but I miss them

just before the opportune time;

perfect doesn’t last,

it never lasts long enough for me to know it.

I decided after the last time that

I couldn’t wait for it to

come to me—rather I was going to seize

what I could before it was last to

the edge of the stopwatch

that interrupts you

while you sleep

(what was it you were dreaming?).

The fact that these things don’t last

is what makes them so perfect.

James Lawson Moore is a poet and occasional essayist living with his wife and pets in Chase City, Virginia. He has two chapbooks, Our Lady of the Locomotion and Unsocial, available from Alien Buddha Press.