Time Games Poem by Alan Strand

Dip down yet again
Bright and blazing sun
Like invariant clockwork
In paleness or pastels
And let the cool velvet night
Swallow me alive,
Whole, happy, and
Totally in awe
Of the timeless
Process of it all.

Wondrous moon
Your face too steadily sails
On your seasonal course
Eternally across a dark
And patterned sea
Of twinkling stars-
The eyes of Eternity,
Gloriously full
Or faltering
As a sliver of light,
This luminous offering
Ultimately fades
Into dawn’s patient
And inevitable awakening.

And so, the endless cycle
Is constantly changeless
But it is those
Chamelion-like clouds
That dress up the cosmos
In a myriad of translucent
And often brilliantly
Evolving costumes
That makes each day and night
Unique, moody,
And somehow
Meaningful to my soul.

Time passes fleetingly
With each precious breath
And heartbeat we take.
We can no more
Live in the past
Or the future
Than we can grasp
A cottony summer cloud
By its tail,
Taste the sweetness
Of a golden sunset,
Nor can we anchor
A waning moon
Solely because we are
Looking longingly
Into the heavens,
For we are all
Helplessly adrift
In a river of
Energy and emotions
That must only flow
As far as we can go
And, naturally,
No further.
Tic, Toc,
Tic, tac, toe,
The game has come and gone.

It is
All about
Life ‘n death:
Live, learn, love,
Make your mark,
Then judge yourself
As you lie breathlessly
Forever on Eternity’s bed.
After your psychic energy
Vaporizes and vanishes
Into utter vastness
Of time and space,
Will you say
That you
Won?

(2003/08/17, at Rocky Point before sunset.)