Passage, Ebb and Relentless
Gary Beck
Passage
There are rumors that the light within men’s eyes
is the soul’s light, that blazes, flickers, dies,
so suddenly and so soon, that scarce a youth
survives to learn time’s enduring truth.
Are we fragile bits that easily surrender
a part of us to troubles that can render
us weak in our eyes, or our brother’s?
We are too fearful of the stares of others.
Do only children wonder why
it is so difficult to laugh or cry?
We linger as strangers for a moment,
possess nothing, with our dreams unspent,
and leave our place in trembling fear
we never have existed here.
Ebb
I shall not wander far again,
just sit at home and breed old age,
while all my passions roar with rage,
I’ll live fantasies now and then.
I will sit in dull remembrance,
a prisoner of past delights,
leave present hopes for ancient sights,
an old dream of heroic stance.
This fading man, this ebbing force,
a stranger to my lustless eyes,
lingers a brief moment, then flies,
ending self’s seeking at its source.
Relentless
If we would touch tomorrow’s lips
a fleeting gesture with our own
to pause a moment’s candy cry
from babes who briefly bloom then die,
before the hour of each is told
with faint fury whimpering soft,
they pass from blaze of youth to old
penitents, hurling words aloft.
When is their moment? Then they brood
that ambition will never slip,
releasing its relentless grip,
leaving heirs to beatitude.
Gary Beck’s poetry has appeared in dozens of literary magazines. His recent fiction has been published in numerous literary magazines. His chapbook 'The Conquest of Somalia' will be published by Cervenabarva Press. His plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes, and Sophocles have been produced Off-Broadway.
Photo "Flying in Memory" by Bella Dante.
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Poems Copyright © 2007 Gary Beck. All rights reserved.
Photo Copyright © 2007 Bella Dante. All rights reserved.
