Monday, August 14, 2006

IT WAS TIME

SWAM UPRIVER...

TEN STROKES UNDER WATER-
JUST TO GET THE FEEL..

THEN "CRAWLED" FOR TEN MINUTES,
JUST TO MAKE IT REAL.

I COULD SEE THE BOTTOM, THIRTY FOOT DOWN;
THOUGH MY VISION WORKED, HEARING WAS BEYOND SOUND.

NOT EVEN LISTENING TO ANY STILLED VOICE WITHIN:
WHERE THERE IS NO NOISE; THERE, TOO, IS NO DIN.

KEPT UP THE "CRAWL" 'TIL THE NARROWS WAS TOO SWIFT;
SO, I GAVE INTO FATIGUE AND STARTED TO DRIFT.

ON MY BACK DID I FLOAT- FIRST SWIFTLY, THEN SLOW...
AS TREES, HAWKS, AND SKYSCAPES ABOVE ME DID FLOW.

IN AND OUT OF DREAMTIME- EYES OPENING AND CLOSING-
LOST IN A PLACE BEYOND MY CONSCIOUS KNOWING.

SOMETHING AROUSED ME FROM THIS PLACE- PERHAPS, AN INNER CHIME-
AS SOON AS I SWAM TOWARDS SHORE AND HOME...

I KNEW THEN "IT WAS TIME."

5 Comments:

At 9:29 PM, Blogger Patry Francis said...

A powerful and mysterious conclusion. I think I'll have to come back and read this again.

 
At 10:06 PM, Blogger chuck said...

Thanks, Patry!

Not sure what I meant by "It was time."

I think I meant, "It was time...to return to the 'world of everyday'".

 
At 3:50 PM, Blogger LJ said...

Especially liked, "where there is no noise, there is no din."
I'm a big fan of silence and really related to that...how it stops the mad whirling of thought. This was very evocative of how it feels to swim and float, to go underwater deaf...to be somewhere else for a little...

Enjoyed the poem tremendously.

 
At 7:41 PM, Blogger Jess D'Zerts said...

Reading this on a hot evening, Chuck. It's almost as wet as the real thing and it sure makes me want to go and do likewise!

 
At 3:55 PM, Blogger LJ said...

Ok Chuck. That's enough avoiding of the hiding place! Where are you? Still toweling off?

 

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