Only Once... Poem by David Whalen

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One can't touch
The same water twice
Only once can one
breathe the same air…

Some things are such
Beyond any price
E'en beyond empty promise
Of wishful prayer…

One cannot see
The Heavens but once
For It changes
before one's eyes

As do the faces
Of those that we love
As do truth
and as do lies…

Change is the only constant
It's the only permanent thing
All else is no more than memory…
Reality that's taken wing…

Should we try to hold on
To things no longer there
That have no more substance
Than fistfuls of air…

But It's in man's character
Tho' to me it seems strange
To ignore the very nature
…The constant of change…
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