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Poem of the Month: December 2006

In the Middle of a life that's as complicated as everyone else's, struggling for balance, juggling time. The mantle clock that was my grandfather's has stopped at 9:20; we haven't had time to get it repaired. The brass pendulum is still, the chimes don't ring. One day you look out the window, green summer, the next, and the leaves have already fallen, and a grey sky lowers the horizon. Our children      almost grown, our parents gone, it happened so fast. Each day,      we must learn again how to love, between morning's quick coffee and evening's slow return. Steam from a pot of soup rises, mixing with the yeasty smell of baking bread. Our bodies twine, and the big black dog pushes his great head between; his tail is a metronome, 3/4 time. We'll never get there, Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urging us on faster, faster, but sometimes we take off our watches, sometimes we lie in the hammock, caught between the mesh of rope and the net of stars, suspended, tangled up in love, running out of time.   - Barbara Crooker Journal prompts: In this busiest of seasons, how can you "take off (your) watch" and slow down? What do you find yourself "in the middle" of? What does the line "Each day, we must learn/ again how to love" evoke for you? Review the year just past. How did you use your time? What mattered to you? What will you remember?

The Poems of the Month are copyrighted in the names of the individual authors, and are reproduced here for educational and therapeutic purposes.

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