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    Coping with Terminal Stillness: Poems, Short Stories, and Other Broken Things
    Coping with Terminal Stillness: Poems, Short Stories, and Other Broken Things
    Coping with Terminal Stillness: Poems, Short Stories, and Other Broken Things
    Ebook127 pages59 minutes

    Coping with Terminal Stillness: Poems, Short Stories, and Other Broken Things

    By Justin P Lambert

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The third collection of poetry, short stories and essays, from Justin P Lambert, a freelance writer, author and poet living in North Carolina with his wife and two kids.
    This book is guaranteed to make you happier, healthier and smarter. It will cure balding, broken hearts and the mange. It will likely result in world peace, assuming word spreads far enough. It's not so much a book as it is an experience.
    As is to be expected, the contents of this book are about as believable as that last paragraph.
    But it's a fun read if you like this sort of thing. Enjoy!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJustin P Lambert
    Release dateAug 26, 2016
    ISBN9781370754540
    Coping with Terminal Stillness: Poems, Short Stories, and Other Broken Things
    Author

    Justin P Lambert

    I tend toward genre fiction in both my short stories and my novel work. Primarily sci-fi and fantasy, although some other interesting themes occasionally surface. My poetry is almost exclusively what I like to call “speed poems” meaning I’m not agonizing over a space or a comma. I’m dashing out a first draft as fast as possible with a goal of crystallizing a particular moment in time or a feeling. Then, if I look back at it at all, it will be to decide if it makes the cut or not. I’m not going to edit, I’m not going to polish. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like that sucks the life out of a poem. If it does make the cut, I save it and will eventually publish it. I’ve also written quite a few essays under the general topic of Timeless Principles. Basically, these are musings on living a better, more fulfilling and more successful life through basic, time-honored, common sense principles for living. Although I’m a very religious person, I’ve tried hard NOT to make these essays religious in nature because I don’t feel this is the proper format for religious writing. But, you’ll probably recognize many of these principles as appearing in your holy book of choice. That’s not because they’re religious, per se, but because they work. So, relax for a bit and read to your heart’s content. If you’re pleased, leave a friendly comment and I’ll get back to you to thank you for doing so. If you’re REALLY pleased, you’ll find an opportunity to support what I do by purchasing a poetry collection or an e-book at http://justinplambert.wordpress.com/book-store . Rest assured you have my sincere thanks just for making it this far. ENJOY!

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      Book preview

      Coping with Terminal Stillness - Justin P Lambert

      Winter

      She used to get quiet

      come late October

      when the soggy blanket of clouds

      drew up to her throat

      and suffocated her silently,

      when the air dried out and crystallized

      or fanned her cheeks

      with mist from heavy sighs

      at the sight of it all.

      Winter in New York

      could last eight months

      in a bad year, and six in the best of times.

      If you didn't like cold, dark, grey

      and slushy, you could get

      depressed. Or at least down

      with no real explanation

      handy.

      So an uneventful drive

      of 736 miles

      through brightening evergreens

      and milder air, to a town

      in the shadow of the southern

      Appalacians

      seemed a life-saving journey

      of forgiveness and retribution.

      And the air last night

      was moist and mild

      Sixty-two degrees on Christmas Eve

      in an uncharacteristically

      soggy trailing mist that

      tomorrow's winter sun will remove.

      And she smiles more now.

      And she cries less.

      And it has all been worth it.

      Spring

      As snow begins to melt away

      the mighty sun agrees to stay

      just a while longer in the blue

      to watch the things we humans do.

      The expanding day permits

      each of us a few minutes

      to look around and verify

      that birds from southern climes still fly,

      that animals once hibernating

      are indeed alive and mating,

      that grass that's peeking from below

      the last bare vestiges of snow

      is green and vibrant as it was

      last autumn. And that's good because

      a winter that goes on indefinite

      soon loses all its charm and benefit

      with everything that's cheerful lost

      beneath a plate of permafrost.

      The human mind requires a thawing

      lest the psyche bend to gnawing

      limbs off in a bid for freedom

      granted by a passing green thumb

      that nurtures shoots and leaves with care

      and brings to flourish what once was bare.

      This is the great equalizing

      when all that once was dead is rising

      from the ashes of the cold.

      It's just as wise king Solomon told

      us in Ecclesiastes one:

      There's nothing new under the sun.

      And so we smile as winter softens

      and we hope to see it often.

      As many years as life may grant us

      each one is a gift. We can't just

      squander such a precious thing

      as every gorgeous, wondrous Spring.

      Summer

      Summer's known for sunshine

      sometimes thick, oppressive heat and sweat.

      Summer's known for family vacations

      time away from work and school obligations.

      Summer's known for long days and short nights,

      expanding possibilities and imagination.

      But in some lands, summer's not known.

      Imagine the cold, barren tundra of the deep north,

      where the wind blows constantly across an ice field

      devoid of trees or shrubs, just endless, drifting snow.

      Flat snow broken on occasion by higher outcroppings

      of snow-covered rock piled atop snow-covered rock.

      Where the only creatures stirring have been gifted with

      layers of life-sustaining blubber and fur

      to seal them off from the constant barrage of

      horizontal ice-pricked snow that comes down in torrents

      or simply blows up from the ground on a bright day

      beneath a sun that feels so far away, not an ounce of

      warmth will ever touch the surface of this forgotten land.

      This is summer.

      Summer's known for what you get where you are

      when Mother Nature tires of giving you her worst.

      Autumn

      Last year,

      the autumn in New York

      was grey and crisp

      with windy wisps of leaf-fall

      scraping a crumbling backyard

      stairway.

      This year,

      the Carolina autumn

      is sunny, mild

      and quiet with the same

      leaf-fall, but somehow less

      denuded.

      Creation

      (With appropriate nods to Genesis chapter 1)

      The page is blank

      with darkness in its bright white,

      formless and waste

      with a spirit moving to and fro

      over the surface of the paper

      And I proceeded to say

      let there be light!

      and ink appeared, darkening the white,

      lighting the dark

      and I came to see that it was good

      and I went to sleep.

      And I went on to say

      "let there be space between the words,

      and let a division appear between the thoughts,"

      and there was, and there is:

      A comma, indentation, a sentence, a paragraph

      subheads and chapters

      Thoughts in bite-size chunks

      and I came to see that it was good

      And I went on to say

      "let the thoughts be brought together,

      and given concrete form and publishable means,"

      So my fingers found the keyboard and

      look! an e-mail query letter followed by another

      and another

      and another

      and another, each according to its kind

      And the world began to give forth rejection letters,

      each according to their kind, and delightful to look upon

      and I came to see that it was not good

      but it was ok

      And I went on to say

      "why should I continue to work and sweat and type and grumble

      without fair pay and respect and reward?"

      And nothing happened.

      And I went on to say

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