Ever Wondered

Ever wondered who you were in a previous life?
Whether it was a life of ease or of strife?
Whether you were a courtesan or faithful wife?
Cuckold, soldier, vegetable, wildlife?
Clairvoyants claim there are old souls among us;
those who have been here before and Socrates,
supposedly, said: ‘The living spring from the dead’,
that humans rose from the ashes of Titans.

Whether new or old souls, do we return
to learn what we failed to comprehend?
As good ascends and bad descends, does
Karma accumulate through recurring incarnations
until, pure of spirit, we are one with the universe?
If souls do transcend, perhaps it’s time to make amends.

Jeremy Gadd lives in Sydney. A graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art and holder of an MA Honours and PhD from the University of New England, he worked in professional theatre in Australia and the UK before concentrating on his writing, for which he has received several literary awards. Poems and short stories have appeared in numerous Australian and overseas periodicals and literary magazines, as well as in four collections of poems and two of stories, published variously in Australia, the US and UK. Two novels have appeared with boutique publishers, one in Australia in 1998 and the other in Canada in 2015. Further details of Jeremy and his works can be found here and here.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.