Notes About The Poem

Time's Shadowy List

Contrary to popular myth, Einstein did NOT reject the existence of Time, but he did reject the differences of its elements, stating that "the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion" ...


TIME ...

Is a phantom with many faces
It drifts, a blotchy mist from our early years
The cognizance of self-awareness like a patchwork quilt
Most memorable moments shining like warm sunlight
Mundane and everyday, a foggy swirl, as we slowly become ... ourselves
Memories splicing together like a movie in our mind ...
We learn and experience, as the images from memory clarify
All flowing like a rill to who and what and where we are
It is an invisible, ghostly yardstick
Chopped up into segments that we build actuality around
An ethereal inchworm, crawling at the pace we allow it
We watch it, breathless, wondering what branch it will take
What it will make or show of the now or then or later
It is beastly wraith that controls and objectifies all we do
We are powerless before it, yet we worship it with our every heartbeat
It is a monster in the dark
A horrid creature under the bed, waiting to grab our ankles
And pull us into the bleak, oily black of oblivion
It dances in the dark of night
Wearing the skin of our hopes, and the mask of our dreams
Laughing at promise like a mad moon laughs at the tides
It is a demon, immutable and brazen
The unchangeable mirror of our mistakes and pains and decisions
Thumbing its nose at our cold conscience
And yet, it is an angel, too
That carries on its wings the brightest of thoughts
The joys and loves and friendships that sustain us
Bright sparkles on the wave tops of what was, treasured and golden
And though we strain with all our might and marrow
We can never touch those many faces
For no sooner have we gazed on its visage than it has turned away
No sooner do we see it approach - smiling, waving, affirming
Than it has flashed by us in a swirl
It is our god and our devil
Our hope and our despair
Our villain and our lover
The keeper of our consciousness, moments and prospects
Our precise measure of what can NEVER be measured
And the universal spirit of existence
That will never, ever ... exist.





~ 1st Place ~  in the "Writing Challenge 3, July 2019 - List" Poetry Contest, Dear Heart, Judge & Sponsor.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2019



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Date: 8/12/2019 6:43:00 PM
Greg congratulations on your win in my writing challenge with this excellent poem! And I love your image too!
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Date: 8/9/2019 4:35:00 PM
Back with congratulations on your 1st place win. Hugs
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Date: 8/8/2019 1:03:00 PM
A brilliant imaginative write! Congrats on your 1st place win, Gregory! Blessings, Kim
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Date: 8/8/2019 3:55:00 AM
- Congratulations on your win ... your list is fabulous, Gregory :) - hugs // Anne-Lise :)
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Date: 8/7/2019 7:56:00 PM
A great story telling list. congratulations on your win.
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Date: 8/6/2019 3:30:00 PM
I love how you penned this list poem Greg, so creative and beautiful...it flows, smooth, like the beat of time...wonderful poem...i think this one will do great in the contest :) hugs
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Date: 8/5/2019 4:50:00 PM
fabulous list, Greg :)
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