Ode To the Present

Thomas Cooper Gotch

Ode To the Present

This

moment

as smooth

as a board,

and fresh,

this hour,

this day

as clean

as an untouched glass

--- not a single

spiderweb

from the past:

we touch

the moment

with our fingers,

we cut it

to size,

we direct

its blooming.

It's living,

it's alive:

it brings nothing

from yesterday that can't be redeemed,

nothing from the lost past.

This is our

creation,

it's growing

this very

instant, kicking up

sand or eating

out of our hand.

Catch it,

don't let it slip away!

Keep it from vanishing into dreams

or words!

Grab it,

pin it down,

make it

obey!

Make it a road

or a bell,

a kiss, a book

or a caress.

Slice into its sweet

scent of wood,

make yourself a chair

from it,

then weave yourself

a seat.

Try it out --

or, better,

try a ladder!

Yes,

a ladder:

rise

out of the moment

step

by step,

feet firmly

planted on the wood

of the moment.

Up and

up

but not too much --

just high enough

to

patch

the holes

in the roof.

Not too far;

you don't want to reach heaven.

Climb up

to the apples

but not as far as the clouds

(let

them

cruise the sky, drifting

toward the past).

You

are

your own moment,

your own apple:

pluck it

from your apple tree.

Hold it up

in your

hand:

it shines

like a star.

Stroke it,

sink your teeth into it -- now off you go

whistling on your way.

Pablo Neruda 

from Odes to Opposites

“This is our creation, it’s growing this very instant…sink your teeth into it…” Shall we make a meal out of the moment? Taste it, feel it, discover all its possibilities? Neruda knows more than any poet how to turn a thing in the light so all its facets sparkle in turn. He is so much like William Blake, seeing a world in a grain of sand. Blake tells us there are worlds there, but Neruda show us. And he sets us a challenge, "Catch it! Grab it! Pin it down! Don't let it get away!", and not only to take in in hand, but to grow from it, "Rise out of the moment step by step." Take the moment, let it feed you, and grow. Good words to take into a new year.