WHATEVER

You are the time I stood on the hill

just above our pond to stare at the

color blue set in the emerald grass,

wild willow prongs to hold it all

in place. A gem of a memory these

fifty years later, and those vanishing

seconds are woven for me to study

again, to dig for how my belly

tickled with beauty but…

I am still me. Entangled,

re-spun, re-woven from here to

all the way back there looking

down at my very being on the hill

just above our sapphire pond, and

emerald willows. I’ll take a moment

here on the edge to wonder the nature

of all the billion other flashes in the

weft and warp of time and gravity

cushions for me to kneel at my 

ebony alter where I worship beauty 

and take communion wine

with unleavened bread in the

smooth river rocks to forget those

cubist cages everyone is so keen 

to throw up on every corner.

Not me, I’ll brave the waves and

mudlark around the edges of

this great ocean time has filled

with the stuff of whatever I am.

Am I nothing more than one slice 

of time standing in the spillage like 

smoke, like your smile in the dark

They lie, the jigsaw shards of

all things as they have frozen,

scattered at Mnemosyne’s feet. 

Reviews

[Betty Hermelee]

Many fine reflections woven with nature and time....and your love, the sapphire pond and the green willows..."vanishing seconds"....flashes of your life past seem to pop up....and where you are now at this moment..."I'll brave the waves and mudlark around the edges of this great ocean"....nothing like looking back to appreciate those times in your life that gave you some joy...Nice Write Vol...
Warmly, B

[Vol]

And warmly received, Betty. Thank you for your kind review... At my age there is alot more back there than lies ahead...
Vol

[Lynda Logan]

Hey there, fellow writer! If you’re looking to polish your work, refine your story, or just make sure everything reads smoothly, I’m here to help as your beta reader, proofreader, and editor. Let’s work together to make your writing shine!

[Betty Hermelee]

always a pleasure Vol!🌷🌷🌷
Warmly, B

[Lynda Logan]

Will you like to polish your book to make it a Bestsellers

[Ms claws]

"ebony alter"

She was beautiful, Vol.

[W. Barrett Munn]

Hi, Vol,

I've spent many Friday afternoons engaging with Rattle's Critique of the Week on You Tube hosted by Tim Green, Rattle's poetry editor and poet. One thing I've notice is Time will read a poem and them make a comment about where a poem begins to take off - I find that happens here to me.

Your poem really takes off and begins to fly in the third stanza. You might at least experiment with eliding everything that leads up and simply start right there, in medias res.

Just passing along some things I'm learning.

Winston

[Vol]

W.B.
Hmmm,
I'll give your suggestion a very serious consideration, especially since it is true...
If I don't change it, it will be because poems have more than one life. If you deciding "when it soars," then it does where you say, at the third stanza and the first two are not necessary, or could maybe re- worked to place at the end. If you are looking for my intentions when I wrote it, I was attempting to say that the fifty years between three and four were a one second eternity. And the span between all my (admittedly romanticized) memories and the reality of now seem to exist outside of time, whole and real… as though everything happens at once in non-linear time. I also sometimes do something some sonnets do… set up a proposition then explain it, create a conflict and solve it, or ask a question then answer it…
The problem is our Perceived passage of time and the continuing existence of each slice of time which contains the universe of events it represents. Does the two thousand eight hundredth second of 06/03/1949, still exist? I’d not be here to ask if it wasn’t there at least once.
You know, W. B. Now I’m feeling like I need to re do the first two so they can soar, too.
Also, sometimes you really do need a runway to take off from, if the jump s too precipitous, you might head off in the wrong direction, in any case I’ll be reading poems with an eye to soasring.
Vol

[W. Barrett Munn]

James Loganbach is a critic/ poet/ professor/ author who I read who has lots of interesting things to say about poetry, especially just what you are talking about in sonnets: How Poems Are Made; The Art of the Poetic Line are his finest books IMO.

[Vol]

Cool..........................

[Lorry]

Did you hear the science news today Vol? Scientists are really starting to suspect our entire universe is inside a black hole!
I mean, I always thought we were a tiny irritating grain of sand, but now our tinyness just got even tinier!
It's like trying to imagine every grain of sand is its own universe while wishing we could find and be in the one where cost of living increases aren't breaking everyone's back.
But just think, there must be a universe that is forever stuck in 1980 prices where you could actually go out, have a meal and some drinks and still get change back from five bucks!
Just our luck to be stuck in this bloody universe though.
Sorry it isn't properly reviewing your piece, but I just wanted you to know that there is still a place where a dime bag actually still costs a dime! 😃

[Vol]

Inside a black hole? Sounds like some sort of anal creation... could erupt in a big bang at any time...
What a mess!

[Lorry]

Ha! I'll send the link if I come across it again.

[Lorry]

As promised...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/new-nasa-data-hints-we-could-be-living-inside-a-black-hole/ar-AA1B4Jog

[Vol]

Cool... I've suspected as much for a long time now...