Ben James

Wordsmith. I curate a daily #Collection of #Micropoetry from around Twitter.

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

I've been trying my hand at a digital #micropoetry chapbook and thought I'd try @GitBookIO. I've started with a collection of #poetry on #love. Happy to know what you think. https://t.co/7QlazbxmOe

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

My #translation of 酬张少府 by 王維

晚年唯好���
萬事不關心.
自顧無長策,
空知返舊林.
松風吹解帶,
山月照彈琴.
君問窮通理,
漁歌入浦深

https://t.co/xkFom2OIbP

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

My later years I seek quietude,
Caring little for the world.
I little regard my future,
And intimate with emptiness return to familiar woods.
The pine wind blows me open,
The mountain moon christens my music-making.
You seek difficult truths,
We only enter by simple paths.

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

I seem to be taught about love
Only in its absence.
The emptiness of feeling
Teaching me what it is to be filled.
#micropoetry

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

@incharmuese Thank you. It was an honor to share your words as a wonderful coda to the collection.

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

The Day in #micropoetry: 4 Oct 2022 with works by @osbornecsue @chrispapps2 @JennyHayut @AdLibby1 @ArielPoets @johnguzlowski @scriptyrose @TheWellOfSongs @MadQueenStorm @RobertJW4688 @WordsVsfeelings @McconnellEryn @incharmuese https://t.co/fGrG0kMjpX

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

@AdLibby1 Thank you for your piece. I've been thinking about messages written in waves ever since.

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

@chrispapps2 Thanks Chris. I'm glad I could share your piece. I enjoyed reading it.

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

@McconnellEryn Thank you for your lovely piece. It's an honor to share it.

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

Mining our sorrows
We find the true joys
And only real comforts
Possible in our short
And often painful lives.
#micropoetry

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

But a life starved of love, care, and concern
Is only a half-lived life
And that which dies only a shell
Of the human being we are meant to be.

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

Cancer may be eating his organs
But his hate long ago ate his soul
And left his heart a rotted out cavern
Where, maybe, once feelings once abided.
#micropoetry

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

A life lived poorly will end in sorrow.
Empty of comfort and concern
As we are left alone to those who gather
Like the carrion-eaters merely to pick the bones.

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

As the ocean rushes to greet
The water of the stream
Returned at last into its arms
After long travails and many changes,
So do I wish to be welcomed back
Into a loving embrace
Folding me back in
To the great sea of belonging.
#micropoetry

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

Online dating is the heavy millstone
Grinding down our hopes and aspirations
For what is vital and life-giving
Into an unfulfilling meal
Of unsavory possibilities
And the choking chaff
Of bitter disappointment.
#micropoetry

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

I will draw near to you for judgment and I will be swift to bear witness against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, or turn aside a resident alien, without fearing me, says the Lord of hosts.
- Malachi 3:5 @KenPaxtonTX

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

This morning's @onbeing #PoetryUnbound is probably one of the best ones yet. Just amazing and deeply touching to all who've lost in their childhood, which is everyone who was once a child. Thank you @duanalla https://t.co/5MGCWdurk3

[Ben James @BenJamesPoet]

Paradise is a kind of poem.
- Denise Levertov

h/t @g_keillor

https://t.co/6pxmAEb9TQ