Time Just Is
by Odin odin@aflx.com — Read all 3,869 poems by Odin odin@aflx.com
Beyond doubt and thanks to the tick of clocks and aging, we feel the seemingly relentless and continuous flow of time in everyday life. Gollum's riddle from Tolkien's The Hobbit posits serious consideration:
"This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down."
(Image by Igor Morski)
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Time Just Is
by Odin Roark
Joined at the hip,
Time and existence
Remain on the move,
Invited or not,
Welcomed or rejected,
Time always has a place to be.
Arriving at birth,
We don’t notice at first
Our newly born crying nature.
Suckling becomes a perpetual wake-up call,
Helplessness but the ticking,
Arcing back and forth,
Moving ever closer to
The wailing burst,
Time’s blessed alarm.
Without Time’s cycle,
Anticipation would flounder ungrounded,
Missing sunrises,
Sunsets.
Seasons might be but anomalies,
Changes unaccountable,
A history without measurement.
To count on Time,
Is to trust that
Spring,
Summer,
Fall,
And winter,
Will always be.
That cell life began with duration,
That chronology eventually delivered seedlings,
Sprouting,
Blossoming,
Blooming,
Eventuating retirement’s mulch,
Is perfection’s evolution,
Unrestricted.
Nature’s perpetual countdown
Knows only beginning anew,
Cycling its tempo,
Beat,
Rhythm,
Measure,
And meter.
And of simpler listings…
Without Time,
We would be without calendars,
Birthdays without remembrance,
Anniversaries without starting points,
Holidays without anticipation,
Death with age unknown.
Time just is
For in its absence,
We might have to live
Without mind’s limitations.
Mmm.
We are so accustomed to keeping track of time that we feel uncomfortable without it.
When I ask you, "What time is it." Your poem has said well, "A time for every purpose under heaven." (And I don't believe in heaven.)
Ron
Sandie
"Time unlived grows old, like unworn robes in a locked chest."
Certainly an unappeasable process that nothing in creation is immune to. For me it's a real blessing communing with creative-types time has not jaded. Living spiritually, physically, and mentally healthy, disciplined, willing to venture out of the creative comfort zones into new lands, keeping minds sharp, and free from dependence on substance, certainly takes the edge off of the process. Enjoyed these cogitations. Yours is a pearl of a mind in a sea of stones. richard