In The Passing - Long Version Poem by Tom Courtney

In the golden rods of twilight
In the gleaming air of dusk
The gentling hews of nightfall as I walk
The song of little sparrows
floats off in time immemorial
across the universe
and to the farthest places
we shall never know

They sing to raise me in my stumbling step
My feet bathed and brushed in the gentle grasses
The giant walks staunchly by
across the tips and spears

Just one of us
One spear speaks to another
Yes, but heavy-set, or rather, isn’t he?

The breezes speak in the rustling leaves
Bathe my skin with the scent of a thousand flowers
I see myself approaching in the distance
beckoning come to me

Oh lost stranger
Boy here I am
Will you awaken too soon
to know of heaven in the distance?
Your shining hair
extending hand
Me to me
across the heavy distance
and through the infinite space

Palm to palm you say
The loneliness needn’t be
The universe is spoken
through the hearts of lovers
All time and space
and earth and sky and god
are passing here
within the breath of angels

I hear the music of the grasses
alone in this meadow of the sun
Sweet pasture of dandelion and flower
as evening takes the greens and limes away
and brings the grays and golden browns
of rest

And the soon-to-be grasses-of-tomorrow
are quick
to erase the memory of my heavy shoe
in the passing