Songs for the Here and Now (for Osip Mandelstam)

I

Here and now come
 Little magnolia buds

Set hard against

December’s frost

Saving their best

For springtime

In truth the future can’t

Come soon enough

Once they have laid down

Their downy nubs

II

As we journey along

We strive to be
Better attuned
To the here and now

Yet sometimes that too
Seems overly confining
 As if we’ve been trapped

Inside these two boxcars that are

Coupled together and rolling
Along a circular track


III

Peering out through the slats

 What we truly yearn for
Is to soar like the winter geese

Wherever they may be bound
We too ultimately belong
Only to the cloudless sky

IV


The noise of time
It comes and goes
The more we hurry
The louder it grows
Until it subsides
In times of repose

But even then
It will flare up again
And can't be denied
We must surrender to it
Like a tinnitus
Rooted deep
Inside our brain