As we approach year's end, perhaps some reflections on time are in order.

Zones of Never and Forever
By John Herlihy

I
Some things last.
Some things last for a while.
Some things last long enough.
Some things seemingly last and last.
Some things last,
but you wish they would keep going on.
Some things last,
but you wish they would last forever.
Some things last for a while,
but they don’t last long enough.
Some things last for a long time,
but they don’t last forever.
Some things never last,
but a few things will last forever.

II
Before creating the sun, moon, and stars,
God created never out of forever.
Sound has been around since creation;
Silence has existed forever.
The beginning of time seems like ever and ever;
But time is as good as never in the face of forever.
The end of time will come on the Final Day;
But forever will go on forever.
Eternity’s flower cannot be sullied,
By either time or never.
Never falls over the edge of absolute finality;
Forever floats in a sea of numbing infinity.

III
Love wanders lost in never.
Love seeks refuge in forever.
Goodbyes should be never,
But goodbyes feel like forever.
Sleep seems like ever and anon.
Death seems like forever.
In death the body awakens never.
The soul will live on forever.
Death is never.
Eternal life is forever.
The spirit of despair belongs to never.
The spirit of hope belongs to forever.

IV
What is never,
But a hard, cold smack across the face,
From the back of the devil’s hand,
With the finality of doomed hands,
Sounding like the snap of a whip,
Like the crack of winter ice.
We pay a price,
When we invest in never.

V
What is forever,
But an evening breeze,
Everything seems to yield,
To the invisible, silent, tender hand,
As it beckons from the vicinity of forever.
Never is a mighty ocean wave
Whose onslaught disappears
On the shores of forever.

VI
Damnation seeks never.
Salvation courts forever.
Yesterday will never again happen.
Tomorrow is as good as forever.
The present moment prostrates
In the name of forever.
Never say never,
To the possibility of forever.
Look up, look beyond,
There is forever,
In all its enduring endlessness,
Luminous, deep, blue like the heavens.