“Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed.” ~ Miranda July
As National Poetry Month draws to a close, I bring you five poems about Time.
The final one is my creation.
Time is very slow for those who wait;
very fast for those who are scared;
very long for those who lament;
very short for those who celebrate; but for those who love, time is eternal.
~William Shakespeare
The Trees
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.
Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.
Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In full grown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
~Phillip Larkin
The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.
Time is a wealth of change,
but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.
Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time
like dew on the tip of a leaf.
~Rabindranath Tagore
Forever
I had not known before
Forever was so long a word.
The slow stroke of the clock of time
I had not heard.
‘Tis hard to learn so late;
It seems no sad heart really learns,
But hopes and trusts and doubts and fears,
And bleeds and burns.
The night is not all dark,
Nor is the day all it seems,
But each may bring me this relief—
My dreams and dreams.
I had not known before
That Never was so sad a word,
So wrap me in forgetfulness—
I have not heard.
~Paul Laurence Dunbar
At The Museum of Time Gift Shop
I wish to buy us
just one more day.
I’ll pay full price,
spare no expense.
I’ll fill our day with
togetherness
an ocean view
a symphony or two
words that matter
laughter to heal
hugs to feel,
then wrap the day in sunshine
and a red ribbon of love.
I’ll hold my present
like a precious gem,
through the tumble of time
for however long—
until I find you again.
~Evelyn Krieger
