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September 14, 2009

Monday Poem

The Ghost of the Arrow of Time

An hypothetical-resurrected-formerly-dead
in a daydream arrived with a scent of dread
which I could not put my finger on

yet knew that I knew
the way I know a déjà vu and
you
 
came as something I ephemerally knew
came as something ephemerally new

as a bud for instance at the tip of a limb
that once before has never been
but anyway was last spring again

came as a ghost with a cock-sure grin
in a hunter’s cap camouflaged and slim

so thin as to almost disappear
as it turned, the way a tide rolls out and in
almost as if it were never there

as a bow wave breaks in heavy seas
as now breaks over thee & me
 
to shudder us deeply along our keels
sometimes bringing us to our knees

scouring stains as a burglar steals
to wake-off distantly from our stern

as foam and eddies and whirlpools curl
as flotsam bobs and minutes burn


by Jim Culleny; Sept 2009

Posted by Jim Culleny at 12:04 AM | Permalink

Comments

In physics in the direction of Time's arrow is set (unless one wants to start a debate) but in poetry Time goes where it wants or where it is needed. Thanks Jim.

Posted by: Pete Chapman | Sep 14, 2009 4:02:20 PM

And Pete, you must have noticed I launched the poem from your intriguing turn-of-phrase in a comment you made last week elsewhere at 3QD.

Thanks

Posted by: Jim | Sep 14, 2009 6:19:53 PM

Yes and this is clearly a case of bettered by the borrower...you made good use of it. I was just trying to sum up Elatia's example of someone who would remember (or at least surmise) an instance of time reversal...there is poetry lurking in those 3QD commentaries one just has to be open to it.

Posted by: Pete Chapman | Sep 15, 2009 8:30:10 AM

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