Carpe diem II
the present becomes past
with every breath
you take;
you blink
and
a moment
is gone
whisked away
into the swirling
mists of before,
never to
be lived again
except in memory;
live there,
linger there
to dwell
on joy
or sorrow,
and the present -
the here
the now -
will pass you by,
as your focus
remains on
then;
the present lives
with every breath
you take;
the past ends
when you live
in the now
and not
in the “remember when”
or the
“I can’t wait until…”
the present lives
with every breath
you take,
and dies
with your last.
The Sun-Dial
The shadow by my finger cast
Divides the future from the past:
Before it, sleeps the unborn hour
In darkness, and beyond thy power:
Behind its unreturning line,
The vanished hour, no longer thine:
One hour alone is in thy hands,--
The NOW on which the shadow stands.
-Henry Van Dyke
————
Though this is not my poem, it is a memorized favorite. Being new to Prose, I hope it is not improper to share the work of other, inspiring artists.
Real
The present sips his whiskey and throws down his cards. The past bitterly pushes her chips to the present, clenching her fist so hard that her nails dig into her palms. She’s an angry woman, and the present an unstoppable man. You see, the present doesn’t begin until you despise it. No one has to move from the past to be the present. The present isn’t a time concept, it’s a headspace. It’s sitting at dinner and eating your meal slowly, holding your wife’s hand while walking under the stars, popping pills with who you think will be with you forever. The present comes when you’re with the moment, when you chew your green beans and talk about your day over wine with your forever, finally taking notice of how chipped her red polish is, and swallowing your habits with your reckless friends. The presence is every day. The past is an illusion.
In the Moment
The Past.
When does it begin?
When does it end?
It’s not quantifiable or measurable,
except by people’s memories and records of it,
both of which are fallible.
The past is often
misread,
misinterpreted,
misunderstood.
All too easily forgotten,
twisted, or edited out of existence.
Many of the greatest enigmas of history evolved from the errors,
innocent or not, of humanity’s
imperfections.
What is real,
what is
true?
What is the accurate representation of me and you?
What can we know of our past that will launch us into a better future?
The answering potentialities come in a dizzying myriad of forms and possibilities.
Some viable, some not, all come up against a limitation or flaw evoking the response,
what
now
?
*
*
*
**
****
******
The Present.
Life in the moment.
All we truly have is the present.
The present is always here, always now.
It is knowable, tangible, able to be experienced.
When it begins, when it ends, that still is a mystery.
But this present moment is the place where we are fully alive,
when the entire essence of our being is moving, changing, transforming.
If life is truly that--alive--it is in that split second of vibration,
that brief moment suspended between past and future,
the encapsulation of a single vital breath.
This is the place in which we see
the knowledge of the before
and power of the after
gathered to its
highest
apex.
**
*
*
*
This shortest of intervals is where we find and establish our identities,
where there is no limit to what we can inspire and accomplish
as individuals, communities, nations, religions, cultures.
This is the space of sheer belief, miracles, creation.
This is the place in which dreams actualize.
This is the only time we have.
This present moment.
It is now.
**
*
The Past, The Present.
The Past Ends When The Present Begins,
when we've moved on from something,
as if it were a second-hand object,
discarding thought
and opinions
about it
away,
as if it were nothing
but a bag of garbage.
The Present begins
as it awaited its turn,
a new leaf,
or plantling
that awaited thought
and opinions,
which will finally come
and rain above
as if it were there all along,
as if the Past hadn't been discarded,
as if the Past hadn't even occured.
But little do we know
that
the Past and the Present
are one alike,
that they are same,
as the Present will,
too,
be discarded
and forgotten,
no longer with thoughts
and opinions
about it,
and it will become the Past too.
Just a memory,
or a moment
that had happened
and cannot be changed.
20.6.2020
Time
The past doesn't end but gets longer.
It's the manifestation of the statement saying that the time never stops, the past is like the fire that never stops eating the plants when it is launched. Like that, the past eats the present. Every moment you are having now is the present. But every second from that moment is part of the past, as soon as it is passed. Just in a blink of an eye.
The past and present are two sides of one coin, and that coin is in harmony to make the future shorter and shorter and to make us explain that time moves and never waits.
The present is the bridge between the past and future.
Never
The answer is never!
Time is all about perspectives. Some believe that there is no past, present or future if you fold time, because you’re always content to remain at the same place you've started from.
In other words, nothing changes from the last time you blinked to the moment you start thinking that something has changed because what you see is the same even unfolding in a circular ever ending loop.
midnightink 6-20-20
Where
Where does the sky stop and the sea start?
dark and light blues blending, bending light, dark
Where does fact separate from the heart?
tell the truth you want, what you wish truly not
Where do the trees move apart from the wind?
See-through gusts pushing visible branches wild
Where does the past end and the present begin?
right now, right now , right now
in the blue, in the heart,
in the light, in the dark,
in the leaves, in the trees,
in the moment