The brass key turns tightening the spring
How the second hand races, chasing dates
Evenly stitching together the edges of time:
Facing its face, no smile, no frown
Unzipping the seconds into minutes
Tormenting, teasing, running late
Unperturbed silently setting the day;
Relentlessly sweeping round and round
Each hand turning towards the future:
If the clock work were to stop, no tick-tock
Suspended in time the hands would wait.
Ingeniously, somehow they will always turn
Magically pointing to impending events
Mocking us, they will never age . . .
In time zones across the lands these hands
Never stuffed in pockets in perpetual motion
Engraving the past and sealing the present.
Now the digits twist in time, one understands
The future is imminent . . . (it’s not in our hands)
The hands of time seem to be always moving, yet time is actually now. The future is imminent (it's not in our hands) very true.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your remarks, much apreciated
Delete"...no smile, no frown" - it just is. Marvelously written.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Martin.
DeleteThe future is unpredictable and with the world scenario around us being fragile and violent , don't know were as whole world we are heading.
ReplyDeleteLike the hands- not stuffed in pockets and chasing dates..nice personification!
ReplyDeleteSome interesting ideas in this poem Julian, another great write from you. See you next week!
ReplyDeleteTime keeps ticking, no matter what...it's the one thing we can be sure of. Wonderful writing!
ReplyDeleteThe future is indeed unpredictable.. and is definitely not in our hands.. let us go with the flow :)
ReplyDeleteThose closing lines are a perfect summing-up!
ReplyDeleteInteresting! We always have one foot in the future, but - you are right - it is not in our hands!
ReplyDeleteVery rightly said future is not in hands, but our desires and aspirations make way for us :)
ReplyDeleteCheers
MeenalSonal from AuraOfThoughts
What an amazingly creative poem....I love the ending too!
ReplyDeleteA thoughtful, philosophically contemplative, acrostic poem - wonderfully written.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Wendy.
DeleteI love all the action in this poem, and the ending is perfect!
ReplyDeletelife goes on..so live in present without worrying about future.i love reading it.
ReplyDeleteSuch a delight to read, each line a moving pendulum into the abyss. Greetings to you.
ReplyDeleteLove what you did here... the meaning of the time, the subtle double meaning of those hands. Really good work
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bjorn.
DeleteAcrostics are tricky but yours ticks like a well-maintained clock! I particularly like the lines:
ReplyDelete'Evenly stitching together the edges of time';
'Unzipping the seconds into minutes';
and
'Engraving the past and sealing the present'.
The imminence has been ticked onto our souls.
Thank you so much and I'm pleased you liked it.
DeleteLiking this, Julian. A really nice acrostic. Even when the clock hands stop 'Time' winds and catches them back up again. We must have our reminders. Too bad we can never get ahead of the future. Or is it?
ReplyDelete..
Probably best we can't get ahead, Jim. Thank you for your kind remarks.
DeleteThe future is imminent . . .
ReplyDelete(it’s not in our hands)
It is God's will certainly! We are not in a position to change it but we can try and it might just work.
Hank
Time does seem to standstill at times and go lightening fast at others. Hard to take yet take we must. Those mocking hands....
ReplyDelete