I Do Not Long Poem by Claude H Oliver II

I do not long for that which has been.
That which has been merely reminds me
that it no longer is,
that it was not what it should or even could
have been. For if the has been was what it could have been
it would yet be!
I do not long for waters passed under the bridge.
long gone to sea.
There are other waters of unknown rivers
with uncrossed bridges waiting ahead for me.
I do not long for that which has been.

Nor do I long for that which might have been.
The might have been is that which was not.
That it was not merely reminds me
that the might have been is yet to be!
I do not spend today in reckoning
what might have been mine
had I heeded the cry of a now dead bird's beckoning.
There are other birds flying, high and free,
who, busy, cry of other crimes in distant climes
waiting ahead of me.
No, I do not long for that which might have been.

I do not lose my day in longing!
I burn it, furiously, living that which is.
I do not squander this precious now
wandering the festering underground of past bruises,
in blind, blundering hope for unpromised futures.
I live the given moment fully, until all it uses are used,
all possibilities exhausted and lost in a night's sound sleep.
For if within me there lives that which is
as it truly is,
then yesterday's ship and tomorrow's too
are here upon the waves of this moment's silent sea,
since that which is.... is that which will always be!

This poem was penned and published by Smith Oliver, c.1967. I merely posted it.