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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

On Looking Back...






Heart-pangs of pain and pleasure clash
For feet can never run
To touch once more the gilded sash
Of past that time has spun

How subtle is the silver sweep
Of moments as they flow
Futile the fold of fist to keep
What Time cannot bestow

…but every now and then it seems
We wander down its track
To linger in its lost daydreams
As we stand, looking back

The way of life runs ever to
The setting of the sun
No returning to exchange hues
Of day when it is done

Time’s moment-mercy ruthlessly
Inhales life’s quickened hour
Reminding us mortality
Is brief as grass or flower

The trails of retrospect compete
With echoes fierce and tender
See how the dueling bittersweet
Falls in sun-shadow splendor

Heart pangs of pain and pleasure merge
A surge of want and wonder
Yet even now new moments splurge
To satisfy Time's hunger

© Janet Martin

O memory! Thou midway world
‘Twixt earth and paradise
Where things decayed and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise 

Abraham Lincoln…from the poem Memory

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I hope you enjoyed your pause on this porch and thank-you for your visit!