Sunday, December 9, 2018

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

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