RAPT

Framed between

Steeples and clock tower,

the wounded moon

hangs shrouded in a saffron

veil.

A gale from off the ocean

blows in with an armload

of smooth, black clouds

to dance in her path, and she,

like Gypsy Rose, peeks

seductively from between

the feathered edges.

I have to stand still,

watch this peep show

unfold in muted ecstasy,

so I can float backwards

to the tryst we made down

by that Appalachian creek.

I think about time…

how this loop was made, from

maybe, thirty years ago,

to right now, faster than

light.

So few, so few, these

little moments,

when I am young

and old all at once.

Reviews

[emmajoygreen]

A beautiful near saga of a life lived to the full, emotions and actions mentioned. Perhaps a belated analysis of how things really were to the now, when an emotional being adds touches of magic or/and insight into the past. Perhaps that is the best and also, the saddest of age - whichever age after ten! As you have:

'Framed between
Steeples and clock tower,
the wounded moon
hangs shrouded in a saffron
veil'

That over time, there to be seen as it and as seen at the Now.

[Vol]

EmmaJoy,
I have always lived my life with eyes wide open but as subjectively as I could, my memories tend toward fantasy, Someday, maybe I’ll tell you of the heartbreaks and tragedies that haunt me. I will never kill time wishing things were otherwise. The pain of visiting that tryst by the creek is wrenching fifty-one years later. They really are the things I am made of, and why I write.
Vol

[Marvin Thomas Cox-Flynn..]

A most wonderfully magical and majestic piece of Poetry that served well to take me back to my younger days for a moment in time in remembering those times when a simple smell could take your heart and mind back your youth, times with parents and grandparents growing up that are long gone now ... Beautifully done!

Marve

[Vol]

Marvin,
I wrote this while visiting my folks in New Bern North Carolina. A town worth finding out about... Downtown is on The inter-coastal Waterway, and is the original capitol of the state. There is a whole village of Pre-Revolutionary War homes. The Anglican Church has a communion service gifted to them by King George III. I have an affinity for any water on the east coast, and in that almost foggy evening I was, in fact rapt by the moonrise.

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I so understand and relate to this piece, Vol. When I was a caregiver for my mother she suffered bouts of dementia but in between there were recollections so lucid that she seemed to be there, a child once more in her mind. I treasured those moments when I communicated with that child my mother once was. It gave me insight into a world of emotions and realisms. In my seventh decade I'm reminded often of what joys memories can bring. They are a tenuous connection to things and people and times lost.

[Vol]

Fabian,
I am sorry about your mom. I fly out to NC next Wednesday to help walk her through her last days. She is 95, and has fortunately kept her mind... still sharper than my own, but her body is tired beyond her ability to overcome.
Sometimes I wonder if the past was REALLY better or was I just more familiar with what it was. Our music certainly was... I think. Even with mutually assured destruction, the world seemed safer. Our political leaders seemed to understand the concepts of wisdom, shame and patriotism.
All in all, I do not appreciate current stupidity that cannot even distinguish something as obvious as gender, or much else in this illogical world... the one where the movie "Idiocracy" is a documentary... sorry everything I'm saying is a much rehearsed rant...

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I stand in solidarity with you on your observations. If I were asked what a "woman" was I'd say an adult female. And I wouldn't need a medical degree to make that call. I think the past really was better...as much as youth is better than old age and trust is better than betrayal. I wish you a good journey, a safe flight and peace in the midst of the turmoil that often ensues when determining final plans. I hope I can hang in there to see 95, if there's anything left to see by then.

[Poetic Beauty]

To feel young when we are old is a blessing. Those moments don’t come often but when they do it’s a thrill and exhilarating

[Vol]

PB,
Hahaha... When I visit the past, I'm not just an observer... I think I'm an editor as well, so I can make everything as good or as awful as I want... And I am SUCH a Romantic!
Vol

[Poetic Beauty]

I find that those with the roughest exterior are the hopeless romantics on the inside. Ahh and I believe we all tend to want to edit past experiences. I’m slowly teaching myself that the past can’t be changed lol 😝 and making my mind focus on other things

[Vol]

Funny you should say that... Some months ago some Quantum physicist wrote that the past is as indeterminate as the future... my question is, do either of them exist at all?

[John the Baptist]

Odd how heavenly bodies can conjure up the past for us. Just a few nights ago the sight of the moon made me think back to 1959 and a similar vision. Indeed, sometimes time does feel like it is faster than light.

[Vol]

John...
According to Carl Sagan, Time might not exist at all... I read an article just yesterday by a MD who has studied thousands of people
who have had Near Death Experiences, and just as I have mentioned in some of my writing, he has come to believe that, after death, time is non-linear. Here is the link:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/near-death-experience-makes-neurologist-question-the-concept-of-death-and-consciousness/ar-BB1kkK5s?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=e7e83b81758b4bd08ffd5236e792dfa3&ei=128

[Betty Hermelee]

We all should take moments like these to reflect on our past and present; and you do a wonderful and colofull job at this... with vivid images of a tryst from yesteryear that you recall so vividly.. and then it disappears in to the reality of today....love it!
Warmly, B

[Vol]

Thank you, Betty... My past is so VAST! And my memory so compliant! I honestly believe these mental reruns to be true and faithful, they are so clear, but maybe I'm just a romantic, and remember how I want them to be? Doesn't matter, they make me happy.
Vol

[Betty Hermelee]

you're very Welcome Vol
Warmly, B