CHAINS OF TIMING

Just a poem....against well accepted norms about TIME

CHAINS OF TIMING

 

My clock is my ruler

It determines what I should do

When should I go

When should I come

When should I eat

When should I tweet

When should I pray

When should I play.

 

Clock chains me

It startles me

It warns me

It spurns me

It churns me

It drives me mad

With it’s never ending deadlines.

 

Clock mocks

At my sense of freedom

It scorns

At my longing for eternal

It even reminds

At times, of a death waiting for me.

 

One day I killed it.

Stopped its ticking

Washed off its existence

From the rooms of my brain

That was stacked once

With dos and don’ts

From my stoic clock’s

Menacing long and short hands.

 

I got back my freedom

Got back my longing for eternity

Got back my belief in deathlessness

Got back my faith in peace

Got back my harmony with nature’s pace

Got back my courage in my own pace

 

So unreal a spook was it!!

That my teachers and parents

Taught me to adore and be afraid of

So unreal witch was it!!!!

That my mentors and priests

Taught me to substitute it for pelf

So unreal fable was it!!!

That my exams and text books

Hailed as something akin to God

 

Today I am the king of my castle

Today I will decide

When to wake up

When to usher sun

When to usher moon

When to chase away stars..

From my colorful day dreams

 

I am the king of my castle

Till its long and short hands

Dare to move in collusion

With its second hand

And start tick ticking once again 

Framing my life in chains of timing.

 

 

Reviews

[The Analog Kid]

Real good.

"Clock mocks
At my sense of freedom
It scorns
At my longing for eternal
It even reminds
At times, of a death waiting for me."

This is a tried and true theme, but you did it so well. I like this one a lot. Going to favorites...

[Bhavya Kaushik]

Very interesting plot, the concept has been plotted very well here. loved the structure as well as the flow of this piece.
Great work!

[Holly O'Brien]

Good point!! Time can only control us if we let it and on the other hand we can make time work for us!!

[Coyote Poetry]

Yes days when clock and time didn't seem important seem like a million years ago. I remember sitting with no purpose but to wait for the sun to fall. I like this poem. I need days free of clocks and rules. A excellent poem.
Coyote

[James Watts]

Time is such a burden. Always have to be somewhere at some set time or do something at some set time. It is so cruel.

[Randy`s Princess]

nice flow and rhyme emotive to loved it

[Mark]

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, we have been compelled to be somewhere or do something according to the whims of another, more often many others. Somehow we have failed to remember that this compulsion is of our own making. Farmers, I think, are the only ones who remember that stuff has to be done, but not because it's TIME, just because it HAS TO BE! The udders of the cows are going to fill, whether you elect to empty them or not, the grass will continue to grow, whether you elect to hay or not.

This poem, I think is not so much a rant against the clock, our own invention, as it is against discipline, against the "have-to's" of adulthood, at the expense of the "want-to's" of childhood.The day did not get one iota longer when the clock was expunged from your life. The only difference was that the oppressive symbol of authority was no longer in view.

[Raivenne]

Bravo! The indefinite finiteness of our own time, the pressures of this everything "now" society in which we live... It has indeed made us slaves to the ticking of the clock. This was very well done Jeny.

[RDOriginal]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds time a real nuisance. You either have too much of it or too little of it and whenever you need or want something it's never the right time either!

I really like the use of that great stream of 'when"s in the first stanza. It really shows how utterly dominating time is. I thought the reference to, "When should I tweet" was kind of cute, were you referring to Twitter or being a bit more esoteric? This matches the big list of complaints about 'it' in the second stanza. We really now how you feel about time by this point.

There's an interesting change introduced in the second stanza and adapted in the third stanza. You are now making it clear that 'clock' not time is the subject of your wrath and 'clock' is gifted with human attributes. Clock 'mocks' and 'scorns' and the reader is now involved in this toe-to-toe battle!

After the death of 'clock' and therefore time we can see how glorious life can be. You really sell the reader on the idea of life without the intrusion of time, you don't just have the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want but you are now promoted to 'King' of your castle!

This is a thought-provoking but tongue in cheek poem. It makes me want to destroy my watch and experience life as a King myself!

[Daniel Gardner]

Not one of my favorites by you but it is definitely not bad poem. Im not sure why it just didn't read smoothly for me. Maybe im just missing the point of the poem.

[Dinesh Sairam]

"I am the king of my castle
Till its long and short hands
Dare to move in collusion
With its second hand
And start tick ticking once again
Framing my life in chains of timing."

Lol.. Yea, Clock does play mind games with your thoughts. Wondeful flow of words.. But try putting it into a theme. Nothing much, it's a nice poem. Kudos. Keep writing.