The
skin etches one molecule at a time
slowly
deeper into approaching night.
The
light moves across its dips and hollows,
those
tiny miniature craters, as if searching
for
meaning, but the meaning is only
time's
movement and how it reshapes us —
time,
that old rogue who waits for no-one
but
marches on with the tide, into a future
that
does not exist, as time is always
circular
and now. The skin, though, reveals
the
passage of time, regardless
of
music or roses or the faces of children
(your
children) looking back at you as they move,
forward
or back as they overtake and surpass you.
Then,
when you decide that it's merely
a
man-made construct, and you construct
evidence
in support of this — a new day dawns,
the
sun comes up, the world is round, and you know
again it's solid geography and physics, even if some
insist
time’s measured in a thin line on a cat’s back.
Written for a joust at dVerse in which we were to take a line from a poem by Brian OR Claudia and have it inspire a poem of our own. I am a bad person! Instead of choosing either team Brian or team Claudia, I was so intrigued by one particular line of each that I have used both, as my beginning and end. Either I will get disqualified or my entry will count towards both scores (which is much the same as neither).
No, time definitely waits for no one.. The idea of 'circular time' makes me a bit dizzy, but the idea is kind of comforting. And,oh, yes the skin does tell the tale. The passing of time cannot be hidden there.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you framed your poem with a line from each poet. Great exploration of the passing of time and its effects on each of us.
ReplyDeletetime is...and we are...and we can not fight it, only embrace it...as our kids overtake us...its an interesting progression you achieve...i am somewhere there in the middle i believe...ha...
ReplyDeleteI'm still not sure if I want kids... I mean, I do think it would be cool to have a piece of me still walking the earth when I'm gone... who knows. Time def waits for no one; seeing my loved ones getting older isn't easy...
ReplyDeleteWell there are certainly pros and cons to having kids! I don't think you should have 'em unless/until you really, REALLY want them.
DeleteI wrote a poem for each, Rosemary, so I too was 'naughty'.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, that dilemma about time being a construct and then being confronted with the pure physics of it... Wonderfully expressed - I really enjoyed this one. There are mornings when those tiny miniature craters feel like insurmountable crevices...
I had to write a poem for each too, and I like how you let the lines frame your poem.. Time really is a very interesting concept, as it can be measured exactly - yet it has no real substance and what really counts is how it feels inside.
ReplyDeleteha - you will not get disqualified... smiles
ReplyDeletemy kids have overtaken me already... height-wise as well except for the little one...smiles... sometimes it's frightening how fleeting time is and how swift we have to set sails to let it carry us along...
The reality of the situation will impose its will on events. No way can it be reversed!
ReplyDeleteHank
I love your final verse. Time - no one can control it, we just have to use it wisely.
ReplyDeleteLove this Rosemary. The parts about our children is so true. And I had to stop and acknowledge those molecules that are changing on my body, those crevices that are getting deeper as time is getting faster for me.
ReplyDeleteA very tight write, bracketed perfectly with a line from each poet and filled in so ably in between. I especially love "time, that old rogue." yes, he is.
ReplyDeleteTime is so complex to understand yet it passes quickly as we grow older and our children grow up and move on ~ I like to believe its circular but then we grow old for a long long time ~ Really enjoyed this ~
ReplyDeleteAnd now it's the grands moving on from us... but I love being involved in it all, playing my tiny part.
ReplyDeleteThose two break rules all the time -- you honored them in your crime.
ReplyDeleteCritical look at time and our minds. Nice
Thinking along the "same lines" here, both in what we borrowed and the subject itself!
ReplyDeleteI totally relate to this. Indeed time is 'an old rogue who waits for no-one.'
Out here on the trail, a lot of you wrote for both, like 40%; perhaps our affection for both of them influences us; liked your piece.
ReplyDeleteTime is circular and now..and it is life in full circle..beginning...middle...end..
ReplyDeletetime...both concrete and abstract, depending on your point of view...it's either the sun or the back of a cat...
ReplyDelete"time's movement and how it reshapes us"
ReplyDeleteI love that line. Time is to us as a river is to the stones and earth that it shapes.
Excellent use of both Brian and Claudia's lines in the construct of what it really means to measure time. Well done!
ReplyDeleteI like how so many of us tackled a subject of time, but every poem has its own beauty. As does yours.
ReplyDelete