Recall the vibrance
Once displayed in many hues
Now no more than trace remains
Though brightness scattered
Here and there
Decay sets in
Drains true nature
Of its lifely due
Thus am I left
With naught but mem’ries
Fading fast
Remiss this guard
Of summer past
Which lingers still
In so few leaves
Fallen to the forest floor
There soon enough
Back to earth
Will they be drawn
And all that was
Will then be gone
For I bear not the past
Carry only hope, and my staff
Tenacity
To an age before
This silence of spirit
And its sorrows
These days of hardness
And slight assurances
Back to a time
Of no small beauty
When time itself
Came in an abundance
Applied to the creation
Of wondrous things
While wonder was divinely inspired
Meaning was no fleeting connection
And purpose a life’s rendition
Before profit and growth and ROI
Became ends and means and purpose
A time long before
The remains of this pier
Were ever a pier
Before ever a ship
Sailed these waters
Before any European left the shores
Of a land not yet named Europe
Gently floating
I let waves and bird song
Dominate the frantic race
Of engines on the highway behind me
Breathe the ocean deeply in
Exhale millennia of progress
For a moment, at least
I exist in a time before
All that I am
Was ever possible
Can I let this self die
This day
Allow a time before
To lead me
To a time that follows
A figure out of time
A being out of context
Trying to understand
Reasons from another reason
All I know
In the end
Are these columns
Carved from red stone
Their perfect geometry
Constructed in an imperfect world
Just as the world
Ever is
Just as I
Ever am
On a grey day
I learn gratitude
For lessons of darkness
Which made of me a man
Who finds light
In the littlest things
I love the places
Which carry the past
Into the present
Better still, the places where
Past and present co-exist
Without need for justification
Shadow event
Captured in light
Held in coloured silver
On fading film
Here
and
There
Holdover from a time
Of neon
Air-con
And movin’ on
When I return
To pick them up
They are no longer
The same moments
