The Past:
Essential,
Evanescent,
Enlightening;
A futile dwelling place.
The Future:
Potent,
Possible,
Potential;
An eventual resting place.
The Present:
Fact,
Focus,
Forceful;
A place of power.
The past has gone;
The future beckons;
Nothing exists but now.
Drat! You even do poetry/deep thoughts better than I can manage. I’ll blame it on old age, especially because short term memory is being troublesome this morning. Oh. Right. I was going to agree with you about poetry being very subjective until I saw yours which expresses a basic existential principle in very understandable yet artistic terms. What to do now? *Wanders off into the distance scratching his head.*
Peace, Doc
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Think the cynical psychologist has said it all – captured perfectly.
Polly
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The future starts WHEN?
Love it 🙂
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Hi Colin,
Thanks for dropping by.
Now I’m beginning to see why the future never happens, if we’re always stuck in the present.
Enjoy your weekend.
Polly
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HI, I SIMPLY LOVE YOUR PEOTRY DARLING. PEN X
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Like it
x
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"What do I know?" you asked in your comment. In my (possibly biased) opinion, lots. Especially if you like my haiku. I will admit to the belief that maybe about 10% are good, but am not convinced that the proverbial roomful of monkeys and typewriters couldn’t do better. At least they are meaningful to me, and thus have served the purpose I had in mind when writing them. Thanks for the ego boost, though. Old people like that.
Peace, Doc
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Great poem! 🙂
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Thank you!
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That was awesome. Well done.
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Thank you, it means a lot.
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Does anything exist at all?
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There’s only one response possible (in my universe, anyway), which is to stick a pencil up each nostril, put some underwear on my head and go ~Wibble~
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Appropriate response! It’s still an interesting question, I think, in asking how we reconcile the assertion that only the present moment exists — Nothing exists but now, you say — with the concept of existence, which necessarily implies duration over time. I think Heraclitus said something like, ‘Existence is change’, though then we must wonder what precisely it is that exists other than change.
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The Heraclitus quote (or misquote?) that always sticks in my head is ‘the only constant is change’. I disagree that ‘existence implies duration over time’. I know I am here now, but I could drop dead any second, and if I were to do that, where would existence be?
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Well, if existence does not imply duration/extension over time, then surely it is outside of time, and hence meaningless? As soon as we place it in time (asserting so), then it has at least some measure of extension within that envelope of time.
As to your question, then what precisely is it that exists now when you say you I know I am here now? As I see it, the only constant is pure awareness, meaning here the illuminative aspect of consciousness (which itself is forever in flux).
What I’m suggesting is that existence and non-existence are constructs of the mind, objects (concepts) of consciousness, useful at one level, but not open to scrutiny as actualities.
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I’ve read your comment three times now, and it’s certainly left my consciousness in flux 🙂 It took time to do so, so I’m clearly wrong in suggesting that ‘now’ is timeless!
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Did you suggest that ‘now’ is timeless?
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I’ve just twigged that you’re objecting to the last line in my poem ‘Nothing exists but now.’ Perhaps I should change that to ‘Nothing matters but now.’ ?
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I’m really not objecting to anything, Colin(?), just discussing the thing with you in friendly exchange. The poem’s really treading on territory that is always going to be open to contrarian opinion, or to be pedantic about, but I do find the subject interesting. Everyone understands what you’re saying; it’s just that (as always) language is inadequate when it comes to accurately describing time and the mind. Is there really any present moment, a noun-like ‘now’ that somehow sits both in and out of time all at once? And in any case, how would the mind (the brain) experience it given all it does in consciousness is represent, post hoc, sensory contacts? In other words, mind would only experience this ‘now’ as a representation of it after the event. But it can’t do that anyhow, because we cannot experience time, only phenomena that occur within it.
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‘Objecting’ is too strong, I didn’t mean to suggest that your words were anything other than friendly. But had I used that alternate ending, we wouldn’t be having this exchange… so I’m glad that I didn’t!
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Very civil of you, thank you; and thanks also for putting up with my intervention. 🙂
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An excellent poem. And yes back in those days there was not the means on our blogs to reply, we would reply back via visiting their blogs to say our thanks.. If you look at my own back in 07. If you were with Windows live Spaces back then as I was, This was the norm.
And True.. there is Only the NOW.. Enjoy every moment of it.. ❤
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Yes, I was with ‘Windows Live Spaces’… almost didn’t come to WordPress because of the offhand way they shelved that system. Glad I did, though… and glad to be in the ‘now’! 😉
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Likewise P.. 🙂
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