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World View

Beyond the line where sea and sky collide
Lie distant lands beyond myopic sight
Where men and women live and love beside
The self-same sea beneath the same sun’s light.
 
Where East meets West depends on where one stands.
I travel west to reach the Orient
While those in distant cross-Pacific lands
Look east to find me in the Occident.
 
Although the Earth revolves around the sun,
We view our solar system in reverse.
For where we live, when all is said and done,
Is our true center of the universe.
 
By the same Earth each one of us is blest,
Though some see West as east and East as west.

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James A. Tweedie is a retired pastor living in Long Beach, Washington. He has written and published six novels, one collection of short stories, and three collections of poetry including Mostly Sonnets, all with Dunecrest Press. His poems have been published nationally and internationally in The Lyric, Poetry Salzburg (Austria) Review, California Quarterly, Asses of Parnassus, Lighten Up Online, Better than Starbucks, Dwell Time, Light, Deronda Review, The Road Not Taken, Fevers of the Mind, Sparks of Calliope, Dancing Poetry, WestWard Quarterly, Society of Classical Poets, and The Chained Muse. He was honored with being chosen as the winner of the 2021 SCP International Poetry Competition.

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10 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    As a former world traveler, this poem scratches my itch. I particularly like the concept where we live and stand “is our true center of the universe.”

    Reply
  3. Cynthia Erlandson

    What a wonderfully true insight, expressed excellently! The first two lines are so lovely that they assure the whole poem will be read. I love “where sea and sky collide” and “beyond myopic sight”. Also, “Where we live…. is our true center of the universe.” The whole poem is like a bird’s-eye view (or airplane view, maybe?) of how we as humans see the world.

    Reply
  4. David Paul Behrens

    This reminds me of a poem I wrote in 1970, crude as it may be:

    Consciousness in Orbit

    I think about all of us
    Being pulled about the sun.
    We can’t get out, so realize
    There is no place to run.

    There is no doubt, all we do
    Has already once been done.
    No end can come to a universe
    When nothing was ever begun.

    Stranded here, we must accept
    Every inch as our home.
    Far and near do not exist,
    No matter where we roam.

    We are the owners of nothing
    And by nothing are we owned.
    One for all or all for nothing,
    No one lives to die alone.

    Reply
  5. C.B. Anderson

    This sonnet, in its own way, is a timeless classic, or is at least what should be seen as one. In the very last line, I wonder whether the poem might be better served by replacing “and” with “or.” Disjunction rather than conjunction, in the logical sense.

    Reply
    • James A. Tweedie

      Wow, CB, what a simple, yet provocative question. I’ve been doing some real head scratching on it and I suppose, depending on the effect and/or point one wished to make it could go either way. I think, however, that the point I wish to make is best made with the “and” rather than the “or.”

      And while I am grateful for it, your compliment is, I think, more effusive than the poem deserves!

      Even so, there is some good wordplay in it and the opening line is, as Cynthia points out, pretty darn good.

      Reply
      • C.B. Anderson

        For me, the whole east-west thing is a big deal. If you travel east long enough you will get to the west, and vice versa. So what do those directions really mean? And what happens when you turn the globe upside-down? For me, it is often the idea that makes the poem, so I think a bit of effusion is called for.

  6. Paul A. Freeman

    I’m living now in a country where folk are more concerned about getting the essentials of life rather than who’s doing what to whom and where and why. It puts a whole new complexion on things and does emphasise we’re all in this together.

    Thanks for the reminder, James.

    Reply
  7. Margaret Coats

    This is indeed a sonnet of classic quality. Unobtrusive truth in perfect symmetry.

    Reply
  8. Geoffrey Smagacz

    Perfect title for this sonnet. Well constructed, with nuggets of wisdom such as: “For where we live, when all is said and done,/Is our true center of the universe.”

    Reply

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