BEING


Romantic notion seeds the bed
Of thoughts upon some erstwhile age
And plants a fancy fondness for the
Ragged book and tattered page

The heroine or hero bold
The kings and court in pompous play
And legendary dreams of daring,
Vibrant souls and finer day

To visit such a place or time
Invigorates poetic soul
And kindles noble longings though
One surely cannot live there.

And at the other time extreme,
Those vistas equal to seduce
With promise of a progress bright
And things that are not yet in place

Fantastic forms and function thrill
And visions tempt a sense of tense:
Past imperfect, future perfect
Forcing vain the longing still

For grander time and better day
Where petty problems vanish from
The mind and heart of man although
One surely cannot live there

And this might seem to make it clear
With past and future both dismissed
That only present could apply
But even that begs smaller frame

For isn't it amusing how
We always make too easy vow
That "in a year or two" from now
We'll do or be or then begin?

2


How often comes the promised hour
Standing thin and naked at the door,
Intention stripped of finery
So easily it had worn before

No purpose suits to ransom time
In promise hollow of the heart
Nor progress there accrues except
The further vacuum of the soul

No years nor months do present sate
Nor future hour nor minute make
The slightest ripple in the lake
Of what it takes to make us whole

Promises and progress, too
And plans that come tomorrow due
Though even born of noble mind
Are not what cause the mill to grind

For passion is but twinkling star
And child of moment, who we are
The passing essence unassayed
Nor by some future moment made

Nor can we really live at all
In any other age or time
For past and future measure small
Against the most immediate ...

That vital instant time of now
Of being all we'd like to be
Without postponing or reserving
For some time of fantasy

Though such may seem most comforting
And grant illusion's easy grace
It is but false expedience
When, knowing, we adopt its face

For in the deepest heart we know
It's ever only true
That in this very moment
I am me and you are you