A Philosophical Look At Survival Through the Next Four Years
Moment By Moment
I ask for only one moment of your time
and then you may return
to that familiar hallway of mirrors
Where you want the changes
and you want them now
Some say pregnancy occurs quickly
but how long did conception take before that moment appeared,
ONLY ONE MOMENT
And how long after the baby is born, before your life is back in hyperdrive?
I ask for only one moment of your time, says your secret self
ONLY ONE MOMENT
Think of it. The strength which you have newly found,
can you remember that precise instant
when you awakened after being asleep?
The strength which is lasting occurs day by day.
AND WHAT ABOUT THAT SELF
you say you are becoming?
You are a fool if you deprive this moment
For a self who is not yet conceived,
If you say, oh, I will be happy in the future
when I've lost the weight
when I've gotten the girl or boy
when I've gotten my break
when I've made my name
ARE YOU THEN GOING TO HOLD THE FUTURE RANSOM
for yourself that has not yet even been born?
I ask for only a moment of your time.
Then you may return to your whirling dervishes,
the activities and tasks and cries of the hour
which regularly ask for your name.
I DO NOT KNOW YOU. Verily, some could say
that I know not myself.
But what then of this stranger who shares your bed,
who you are becoming? If you are awake
And if you are not asleep, then tell me
why is it
That all of us, yes, you and you
And you there, glued to your trillions of Emails
why is it
that all of us don't embrace
our secret selves
JUST AS WE ARE, AND WAIT
for some future that hasn't arrived
When we have lost the weight,
Or begun the exercise program,
Or found that one single FLIPPING INSTANT
To FORGIVE the one family member who was so unkind?
Tell me. I'm only an unknown poet pounding at your Email door
playing the part of another moment in eternity's mirrors
Reminding you
That the changes you seek are like water
CUTTING THROUGH STONE
Oh how I hate that. I want it all now!
But time doesn't stop for my expectations
And the recognition we might all crave
Is blessed in this single moment. I ask only for one moment
for you to remember
These changes are not you. You are here and now and alive
and most of you are breathing.
There!
Take a deep breath!
Feel your ribs expand
The air is free, God knows we suffer terribly for it
for all the crap that goes whistling through it
for all the electronic attitudes and signals and broadcasts
AND JUST PLAIN EXHAUST
As we hurry, worriedly,
to the next moment, waiting to arrive.
You're here! And after this Email is gone
or deleted
or placed in that peculiar file of things to read
that you never quite get to, remember -
You have already woken up. Yes I know
I can hear it now
Water is cutting through stone
Washing over pavement,
Gurgling at our ridiculous airs and announcements,
As it carves through granite, or in love reaches at last
through just one more rigid, unforgiving mind . . . .
Water is like Spirit, and what a spirited lot are all of you
Logging on to your Emails, just in case
You might miss that little gem
That will cast a bit of bejeweled light upon your days.
Who am I? I am no one
The same no one you ignored these months and years,
The same secret self saying
You would be happy, but only if you had the changes. . .
And the changes you seek are like water
cutting through the stony abyss of clockwork patterns,
coursing through the bloodstream of your body
Reminding you to breathe. What a concept!
Take another breath, just for me.
Now go to the mirror, and repeat, those of you that have made it this far,
I love you just as you are, and you are a ravishing fool
To think that you could deprive
THIS MOMENT BY MOMENT
Waiting for the change
that already is here
the awakening that already has come.
This moment is asking for your tenderness
and perhaps a more lasting stroke of kindness
and possibly the hardest thing of all
To see yourself perfect as you are, already
becoming awake
changing as surely as the strength
which occurs
moment
by
moment
day by day,
breath by breath,
hour by hour,
hard
play
by
soft
play
Embrace your destiny now
Embrace it all
Even that which has stopped you
Even that which has been cruel and unsettling:
It's only another unawakened moment
and surely, beloved,
you will find a way around it
just
like
water
finds
a
way
to
reach
its journey, flowing
knowing
that
moment
by
moment
you have already arrived
(Copyright 2001 by Darius Gottlieb - No reproduction without express permission from the author)