Two Poems By James A. Tweedie

                                A Greater Power

A planet soars through space on unseen wings
While tilting, wobbling, spinning on its way.
And on its surface, and below, are things
That shift and move and come and go each day.

Yet ‘twould be futile should that sphere decree
To change course from elliptical to straight!
As if it were autonomous and free
To be both lord and master of its fate.

As like that foolish planet, so are we,
To think by force of will we can succeed
In scripting our eternal destiny
Or even where the coming week will lead.

Our daily life we govern by the hour;
Our orbit guided by a greater power.

                              Legacies of Lethargy

Some people live their lives malingering
As if resigned to suffer day by day
Through lifetimes spent in idle dithering,
While frittering their four-score years away.

They leave this world with nothing left to show
But legacies of lethargy entombed
Within the shadowed void and empty afterglow
Of sterile, fruitless lives that never bloomed.

Like self-indulgent giving trees they spend
All that they have pursuing pleasure,
And fail to understand that in the end
True joy is found in giving beyond measure.

How sad to live and die time out of mind
With nothing but a grave to leave behind.

James A. Tweedie has lived in California, Utah, Scotland, Australia, Hawaii, and presently in Long Beach, Washington. He has published six novels, four collections of poetry, and one collection of short stories with Dunecrest Press. His stories and award-winning poetry have appeared in regional, national and international anthologies both online and in print

His poetry received First Place in the 2021 Society of Classical Poets International Poetry Competition, Laureate’s Choice in the 2021 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest, Winner in the 2022 100-Days of Dante Poetry Contest, and quarterly prize for Best Poem from The Lyric.