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Soulmate

Your spouse ideally is your best friend,
Providing love and laughter end to end,
Supporting and enhancing all day through,
But still at times your soulmate must be you.

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Ultimate Question

Some things are unforeseen, unique, and new,
Arising like unprecedented seasons.
Which prompts the question as they’re all thought through –
Could they be happening for fated reasons?

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The Battle Poem of the Republic

We’re locked in a battle
Of right-minded people
Who love truth and freedom
And patriotism,

With those finding comfort
In lunatic mores
And fascist behaviors
Hell-bent on control.

So this is a battle
We deem existential
As it’s for no less than
America’s soul.

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Good Deeds

Most folks do good deeds out of kindness alone,
Though some find them useful with goals of their own.
But even when true motivation’s the latter,
If good deeds result, do the reasons much matter?

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Russel Winick recently started writing poetry after ending a long legal career. He resides in Naperville, Illinois.

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11 Responses

  1. Margaret Coats

    Russel, your point in “Soulmate” is exceedingly well taken. Couples are gravely impoverished if one or both imagines an impossible forever together. Each soul earns forever by his or her own merits. And even before forever, if one cannot perceive who that soulmate is, in contrast to oneself, there is little or no potential for real, long-lasting mutual assistance.

    Your “Ultimate Question” is a very good one, and it could be supplemented by asking whether unique new happenings are really unprecedented. Often historical awareness proves the event to have suspicious similarities with previous events.

    In fact, “The Battle Poem” seems to allude to a certain battle hymn–though I would say the present situation could be more dire. Too much blood was shed unnecessarily last time, and the more serious difficulties of soul left unsolved to us.

    Good deeds done have a happy way of encouraging healthier motivation, so I think you’re right, Russel, to let the reasons slide by without excessive examination.

    A fine group, each well done in its own metric technique and psychological perception.

    Reply
    • Russel Winick

      Thank you Margaret – I am once again in awe at the depth of your comments, and I agree with everything you’ve written.

      Reply
  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Sometimes soulmates are found elsewhere, yet there is nothing we can do, or should do, about it.

    The battle indeed has intensified. I have always considered myself a moderate, but in today’s political milieu, I find I am branded a conservative. Believing in the Constitution, law and order, protecting our borders, and enhancing out military might should all be centrist politics, but the left has pushed as all to the right, but not the fanatical fascist right.

    You pose an interesting question about the motivations and results of good deeds. I believe there is nothing wrong if the good deeds redound to one’s own benefit.

    As always, you write terse, pithy, comprehensible, and wise words.

    Reply
    • Russel Winick

      Thank you Roy. I agree with you. And it sounds like we’re in about the same political camp.

      Reply
  3. Cheryl Corey

    “Soulmate” is spot on. You have to learn to live in your own skin, regardless of whether or not you have a significant other.

    Reply
  4. C.B. Anderson

    Your observations, Russel, are invaluable, and I’m glad I never had to face you in court.

    Reply
  5. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Your poems always get me mulling and musing, Russel, and these are no exception – especially the closing line of “Good Deeds” – “If good deeds result, do the reasons much matter?” I say, yes… absolutely… reasons always matter… always.

    Reply
    • Russel Winick

      Thank you Susan. I’m inclined to agree with you, but I’ve known some smart people who think the opposite, so this is something I’ve pondered for a long time.

      Reply
      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Perhaps, Russel, the answer doesn’t lie in intelligence, but in the conscience and in the very essence of what it means to be human.

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