#63 A WOMAN'S BRIEFS: DAY FIVE -- TIME

#63 A WOMAN’S BRIEFS: DAY FIVE – TIME

I have occasionally written about time; time for, time to, time enough, time out. At some point in the ‘70s, I wrote about how digital clock faces force us to think time past rather than time till, but I didn’t date the thought. Clock hands no longer encouraged our saying “10 till 3” but rather announce to us that it is “2:50.” Does this cause reflection rather than anticipation, I wondered. I don’t have the answer. I don’t know if we need one.

Here then, for Day Five: two poems about time. The first seems written with feelings in the mind’s driver’s seat. The second has reason at the wheel. At least it seems so to me as I re-read. Is that the case?

My favorite Swiss timepiece

In 1974 I wrote:

WAITING

Waiting for the chill to pass before rising at dawn

            For water to boil for tea

            For the mail.

For children to barge from the gate to the door

            For their father to return from a trip

For darkness to force the family inside

            For others to take their turn at a game

            For fire embers to die

            For sleep to come.

In memory of a friend, June 1991, I wrote:

TIME

binds words,

bones, and

those who find themselves together.

Time

 bends meanings,

mountain spines,

and earth’s light.

Time

takes calamity

and joy

strained through

experiences of silk and hemp-cloth,

and serves up to God

the purified libation.

Time

calls us

from this measured dimension,

and delivers us to eternity.