Sunday, August 27, 2006

Timeless Reflection
By Don Iannone

Broken clocks,
Lost time,
Seeping like water
through any crack,
Running away won't help,
You can never bring back
what you never had.

Foolish little boy,
Sitting all alone,
Waiting for the clouds to pass
and for the sun to shine.
An old man stares through
the young boy's eyes,
seeing the shadows of life
about to appear
as the sun breaks free.

The old man knows the boy,
but the boy knows nothing of the man,
Even if they came face to face,
the boy would only see a stranger,
Just another someone
looking back from the crowd.

Clocks and clouds,
Sunshine and time,
Old men and young boys,
Shadows and strangers,
Only time will tell.

19 comments:

QUASAR9 said...

Hi Don, your composition on light at Serenity's place is on a truly high energy wavelength.
A Masterpiece.
Plus I noticed you were doing some inter dimensional flow yourself...
Did I see Sunday's post on Friday? at your place. lol!

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Quasar...thank you. Blessings are very powerful. I never understood their significance until the past couple years. But thank you. I am always ahead of myself, Q. That is also a part of who I am. LOL.

Bob said...

Brilliant ending.

Margie said...

Beautiful Don!
I agree....Brilliant ending!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Rob and Margie. This is poem from a couple years back. It speaks to how we encounter ourselves in life at different points in our lives.

Don

Mike said...

First, I love the lines "You can never bring back / what you never had." Great observation.

Next, Don, I really like how you merge the old man and the boy. It's a neat perspective

dumbdodi said...

I could feel that the young boy the old man was looking was his own younger self.
My favorite lines like mike were 'You can never bring back
what you never had'

serenity said...

I'm still not even sure I can compose a comment on this post, as I spent some time going through some old things of childhood, had so many memories, and then was so touched by this poem. I'm actually still just "feeling" all of that and experiencing it. The timing of your posting of this poem is really remarkable for me. Thank you for sharing it, and for sharing what flows through you. Just extraordinary.

Blessings, peace and joy to you...

(and, thank you once again for that beautiful blessing...I couldn't agree with Q more).

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Serenity...thanks. One observation. Some times words aren't necessary. Some times our experience of things is quite enough. Blessings.

J. Andrew Lockhart said...

Time will tell, indeed!

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Andrew ...thanks. Hope you are well. How is the start of the school year?

starry said...

Don..i love this poem. different stages in our lives. so well written.thank you for sharing.

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Starry Nights...thank you. Ah yes, those stages of our lives...Blessings.

floots said...

nice one
that space between the years
has to be there to protect the young
but as we age
it becomes an increasingly frustrating one
i keep thinking rereading
as you say
only time will tell
cheers

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Floots...thanks for your thoughts. You picked up on a fundamental line in this poem. But you would given the poet you are.

The line attempts to answer the perplexities of life. Many people seem to go through life in a comatosed way. Even those who delve in the depths and mysteries don't know the answer. At best, they know they don't know, or they know there is no one set of answers for everyone.

I used "only time will tell" ambiguously here. Only time will tell in the sense that we will know the truth ourselves only as time goes on. In this sense, the young is/becomes the old man. The second way of reading this line is the young boy and the old man will will pass and only time "as a collective impression" will be left to tell. Both are possible at the same time.

polona said...

enjoyed this one, don.
i saw the boy and the old man as one... and yes, only time will tell what became of the other...
(thought i left a comment here last night but blogger had different ideas)

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Polona...thank you. One they are! And all of us...One!

jac said...

So differently written.

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Jac..thanks. What do you mean by differently written? Curious about that.

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