It may appear pretentious of me to post an Emily Dickinson poem on my page but I liked this one, and thought it was particularly apt for this time of year, especially with the burden of the future on many of our minds as we welcome in 2012.
Forever - is composed of Nows -
‘Tis not a different time -
Except for Infiniteness -
And Latitude of Home -
From this - experienced Here -
Remove the Dates - to These -
Let Months dissolve in further Months -
And Years - exhale in Years -
Without Debate - or Pause -
Or Celebrated Days -
No different Our Years would be
From Anno Domini’s -
Emily Dickinson, Written c. 1862, published 1929, in Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems ed. Thomas H. Johnson, (London: Faber & Faber, 1975), p. 307-8.
Blades of grass brush between her toes. The sun starts to die; the light fades. A purpling-pinkish pastel tinge is painted on the sky. She presses her back against the overgrown oak tree and readjusts the patterned blanked she is sitting on.
She dog-ears a page in her penguin Classic.
“I wouldn’t do that”, he sits down on the other side of the oak.
She lends him half the blanket and the next paperback on the pile, sighing at his disturbance. He reaches out to let the novel’s paper touch his fingers, ever-hopeful that one day their fingers might brush.