Once One Begins, There Are Only Endings -In response to Louise Glück

A philosophical poem about life. Is it all a series of endings once we begin? Do we look at it from a Hegelian or Heraclitic point of view?

 

 

                               Once one begins, there are only endings 

           On an infinite stream, with 

                   Dips and lows and more dips 

                  Does life only go downstream? 

 

                                        History is a slaughterbench with 

                             Dips and lows and antithesis 

                      Hegel’s History is a Heraclitic stream, 

                           Once one begins, there are only endings 

 

               There is hope in the infinite end 

                  But there’s sadness in the beginning of the unavoidable End 

                              The Destined End, sprinkled onto a newborn’s tongue 

                                The pre-determined yet, ever-surprising End 

 

            Like when your friend suddenly overdoses in Spain 

                                     Did Ryan End?  

                          Or is he infinitely ending still, somewhere? 

               Was The End sprinkled onto his tongue? 

 

               So, Life is the beginning of End? 

                    Yeah, continuous ending 

                      But what if Life is an end in itself? 

                                              And each time we end, we achieve our end 

 

               On an infinite stream,  

                      Once one begins, there are only endings 

Reviews

[mattavelli]

Hello, Beckyflowa! :)
I really enjoyed reading this poem. It's thought provoking. It seems a bit pessimistic to me though, doesn't mention all the good things.

[John the Baptist]

Or, as the Advaita Vedanta proclaims, maybe the whole damned thing is just a dream, and we never really left that first moment of now.