With What We Have
In a perfect world we realize
That every moment begins a new year,
Rather than choosing
one moment out of each solar cycle.
In a perfect world every day is Rosh Hosanna,
That Jewish Day of Atonement when we are asked
To look back 365 days, before we are asked
To look an equal distance into the future
And to project positive into the latter
From knowledge gained in the former.
In a perfect world we understand
that seconds are seconds
And that time is a broken notion
Constructed by humanity.
In a perfect world every day is the right day to resolve
To be more than we have been,
If any day is the right day to resolve
To be more than we have been.
In a perfect world we see the pin light of positive
That shines from the center of the mass of negative,
Focussing on this light,
Settling into a chair,
Allowing our shoulders to relax
Down and into our centers,
Folding our vision upon itself
to double the size of this light,
folding it again
to double the size of this light,
repeating the process enough times
to totally remove the mass from our sights,
and perfecting the habit until our eyes
don’t know how to register sight
of the masses when we see them.
In a perfect world we always note
that there is someone somewhere
who would give anything to swap positions with us;
that there is someone somewhere
who would look at all we view as wrong
or tough or barely bearable in our lives
and say, “Yeah, I could handle that;
it sure is better than what I got going;”
someone who is maneuvered by socialized
ignorance and narrow-sightedness
that they can’t understand that what they’ve got
is theirs, that they will get no more,
that they might as well set about to making do.
In a perfect world art would never have to be anything
But a celebration of beauty.
In a perfect world my pen would get some rest.
For that alone, I’m glad the world’s not perfect.
1 January 2002
Like many of my older poems, this isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Still, it ain’t great. There is some merit here, though, and I hope it can be of value to someone.
Be well. I pray that 2018 is all you hope it will be. Love.
Paulelmo's Blog 