By Morris Dean
Late December turns us round in time,
To review ghostly remnants of the past,
Years long in living, vivid during prime,
Now brief pale images that will not last.
December days, their evenings early dark,
Prompt us think of our long or lately dead,
Who never will again strike up a spark...
So shall we then look forward, what’s ahead:
The future lives in fancy as a dream,
Unsure, unstable, insecure from theft.
What can, in late December, give us gleam?
What, if both past and future fail, is left?
In this dread month let’s choose look neither way
But focus on what we have to do today.
_______________
Copyright © 2012 by Morris Dean
Late December turns us round in time,
To review ghostly remnants of the past,
Years long in living, vivid during prime,
Now brief pale images that will not last.
December days, their evenings early dark,
Prompt us think of our long or lately dead,
Who never will again strike up a spark...
So shall we then look forward, what’s ahead:
The future lives in fancy as a dream,
Unsure, unstable, insecure from theft.
What can, in late December, give us gleam?
What, if both past and future fail, is left?
In this dread month let’s choose look neither way
But focus on what we have to do today.
_______________
Copyright © 2012 by Morris Dean
| Please comment |
I started to write this yesterday, but it was harder to finish than I anticipated, no way ready for midnight publication.
ReplyDeleteFuture and past gleam at a distance,
ReplyDeletemade bright by imagination and persistence.
Instead of polishing hope and filtering memory,
by all means, focus on what needs to be done today.
It is good to focus on what we have to do today
ReplyDelete"...lets choose look neither way"--these thoughts you describe are not themselves chosen; they come unbidden into our consciousness. They assert a life of their own and will what we may they have a power greater than will. It is a power that requires that we wrestle with them and take a stern measure of ourselves. The future is insecure from theft, indeed. The thief is the past. Shall I lock this thief up again in jail for a while? Yes!
DeleteBill, I of course overlooked (whether I chose to do so or not) that our thoughts seem to come unbidden rather than come because we choose them. But doesn't it seem to you that whether or not we wrestle, whether or not we take stern measures, whether or not we lock up the thief, it's not a choice either but comes unbidden?
DeleteHave you read Sam Harris's little book, Free Will?