Time Poem by Maurice Challen

Is time a cliche,
A commodity to be
Purchased or spent?
Passed in waiting
Upon some lengthening list?

Does time hang heavily,
An albatross around your neck?
Or is there time to do those things
For which you always wished
You had the time?

Do you, spendthrift,
Waste time gained?
Or store such precious time
Against time lost?
Perhaps the moment is not right
And time is out of joint?

Could it be immemorial,
This time of which we speak?

Is it freely given,
Or mean at Greenwich?

Time's an ever rolling stream, yet
Man must catch
The time and tide which do not wait
And urgent at our back
Stands time's winged chariot.

If there is all this haste,
When does time stand still?
Is it that moment
When the waters close
Or eyes meet?

Time is often 'once upon'
And times past are
Remembered,
Not just by Proust.
And in the whirligig of time
May come revenge.

We have no time to stop and stare,
Yet Time is always there
And will be to the last recorded syllable-
Until our time has come and
Time is called!