Retrospect
Retrospect
To drink only water from yesterday's streams,
Is to thirst in the present, and die in one's dreams.
We once swam together; you taught me to swim
But all once-bright waters, o'er time, will grow dim.
And when that time comes, new lands will be found
For unto first waters, once mustn't be bound.
You think I now walk through the Valley of Death
But what, then, is life if one fears his breath?
From past flows the present, and grateful am I,
But a present, once given, cannot be retied.
To take back what was given, and make it now owed
Is to take what was pure and poison it so.
The past holds a power strong then and today
And should The Past ever step in to pull sway -
To wield happy mem'ries as if they were swords,
Or thrust expectation like daggers towards
The olive-branch'd hand that hungers for peace
Then love everlasting shall suddenly cease.
'Tis by your own mind you hunger for things
Ignoring the happiness one's present brings.
The past can't fulfill you; its meat turned to bone
For once you have feasted, that seed has been sown.
What was is no longer; and one must move on
To happiness made, from happiness gone.
- A. J. Darkholme (August 2017)