Tag: eternity

Poetry by Patrick JenningsNov 11, 202411:50 pm

900 Seconds on Frank Island, Chesterman Beach, Tofino, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Time ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #395

I often wonder

What the world might look like
If my heart beat in time
With a hummingbird’s wings

Or if one short breath
Flowed at the pace
Of a river carving a canyon

But I have only the time I’m given
An eternity to the hummingbird
An infinitesimal moment to the rock

Poetry by Patrick JenningsSep 23, 20249:13 pm

Telegraph Building, Gregory Highway, Queensland, Australia

Vacant ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #388

Only the stone remains
Even the memories
Died with those who held them

Only the stone
And perhaps some words

Which may yet outlive the stone

From electrons dancing on copper
Then pen to paper

And now perhaps
To electrons dancing on silicon
A record for eternity

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJun 8, 202411:59 pm

Three Mates and an Interloper

My train speeds through the station
Camera lens pressed to the window
Short staccato shutter bursts
Seeking moments and frames

In one second
Three frames
Find three mates
And an interloper

This image the best
From the middle frame
Captured in 1/16,000th of a second

Then… they’re gone forever

In that moment now the past
Scarce opportunity for impressions
Too little time, even
To register more than a glimpse
Of form and tone

Years later
I shape the RAW data into a photograph
Meanwhile my mind lingers
With a ridiculously brief moment
Captured by glass, sensor and silicon

Allow the words to come
That shape stories
From the raw material
Of images
Collected from
Stories I’ll never know

With my muse ephemera
I rewrite history
To serve the present
Then offer a gift
To eternity

Poetry by Patrick JenningsFeb 27, 20247:00 am

In the Midst of Eternity

Some places just feel ancient
Time there stopped
And the land quit changing

I never feel more here and now
Than in such places

This little speck of life, I

In the midst
Of eternity

One tiny moment
Of meaninglessness
Writ large on existence

Poetry by Patrick JenningsMay 18, 20237:00 am

All Lines of Inquiry, Underground City, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Beyond the Convergence

All lines of inquiry converge
On a distant portal of glass
Beyond which a tunnel continues
Deeper than I can see
Offering a promise of The Infinite

Poetry by Patrick JenningsSep 12, 20229:34 pm

Brittle Sun, New Mexico, United States of America

Brittle ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #327

A brittle star breaks
And within a few moments more
The 4 billion year legacy of life
That is my planet
Will be rendered to vapour and dust

As will I
And all I love
And all that loves me

Pity, that

But all I have in these final moments
Is love
Which I endeavour to take with me
Into eternity

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJul 14, 20227:00 am

Carapace and Claw

What’s left behind
On this near side of eternity
Shell of existence
Shadow legacy

Husk of memories kept alive
By those who’d known the shell
But never the true nature
Of what it protected

Too the trails
Footfalls left in the sand
Evidence of passing presence
Echoes oft anonymous

No matter all this
Tides soon enough erase
While echoes fade
To silence

So cling to hope
For something beyond
The far side of death
Or suffer the fear of oblivion

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJul 7, 20227:00 am

On the Edge, Horseshoe Bend, Colorado River, Page, Arizona, United States of America

Nearing the Edge

In the failing glow of sunset
She sidles up to precipice edge
Peers into deep shadows

Senses gravity
Emanating from the abyss
Steels herself

Resists anxiety
But resistance
Is anxiety

Breathe
Breathe
Breathe

Seeking peace
With the imminence
Of eternity

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJun 26, 20225:08 pm

Wispy Skies, Zion National Park, Utah, United States of America

Will of the Wisp

My presence in this moment
Is but a wisp of a cloud
In a windswept sky
A drop of rain
In the eons of torrents
Which gouge a canyon
From a plateau of stone

Try as I might
I cannot grasp
The monumental meaningless
Of my own existence
Leaving me to acknowledge
The incalculable significance
Of drawing a single breath

Here am I
An infinitesimal ephemeral wisp
In the cloud-strewn sky
Of existence
Claiming my glorious place
In the magnificence
As if a passing moment in eternity
Were eternity itself

Poetry by Patrick JenningsMay 13, 20193:16 pm

Arc of the Earth, Smokey River Valley, Rocky Mountains, Alberta, Canada

The Mere Fact of Existence

Feeling the arc of Earth
Below me
Atmosphere
Thick with sky

Crossing terrain and distance
The minutes pass as days once did
For greater men than me
When only Prometheus
Had tested the sky

The land rolls by
All the while stoking awe

Not just for historical men
Bound to Earth
Also for this small speck of stone
This mote of blue
With its invisible billions
In an incomprehensible emptiness

Then, awe too for this small speck of flesh
His hubris of no small magnitude
Believing he matters at all
For the mere fact of knowing his existence

His feeble attempt for eternity
Words released into the twin fantasies
Of consciousness and silicone