Forever in a Meadow

.

Eternity came calling

on me one day

with her childlike face

and her kind, ancient eyes.

She laughed at the way

I danced to the ticking

of a mere clock

and said in a voice

that tinkled like moon chimes,

 

“Come let me show you

the land of Right Now,

a place that’s free

from the chains of your time.

It’s a world where the sun

shines from truth’s eye

and the smile on my face

will fill you with peace.”

.

I followed a minute

but then a loud whistle

stopped me in my tracks.

Tomorrow perhaps —

it was noon in the valley

and I would be late.

.

I headed downhill

but turned to look back

at her beauty once more

and found she had vanished

into Everywhere.

.

.

(c) 2020, 1969, 1965  Betty Hayes Albright

.

Written in high school, 1965. Published in chapbook “Living Color”, 1976; previously posted here in 2014.

This is a newly revised version. I guess it’s about time! 😄

.

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Bird in Paradise

.

.

We found a little box

with a speckled bird inside

and fed it bits of food

and water from a dropper,

until the day he asked

for a bigger place.

.

And so we placed him lovingly

inside a gilded cage

with trays of seeds

and a wooden perch

where he could hop about.

.

“This is fine for now,” he said,

“but tomorrow

I want something bigger.”

.

We quickly built an aviary

with maple trees

and blueberry shrubs

where he could flutter

through the leaves.

.

“This is nice for now,” he said.

But after several days he asked

to wing about the house,

and finally out the window.

.

We watched him fly

through forests and valleys,

and finally up into the sky

between the stars, and out

beyond the Milky Way.

.

A year went by

and one day he returned,

asking for his little box.

He snuggled down to rest, and said,

“This will do just fine –

for I can see forever

from here now.”

.

.

© 2018  Betty Hayes Albright

.

Poem is from a dream I had last April. 

The image is a partial of a print my late parents had – artist unknown. (Update – the artist is Jill Fogelsong.)  The sun just happened to be shining through the window in a certain way, giving it a rainbow effect — which caught my eye. I wasn’t planning to post an image with this poem, but it presented itself just in time. Funny how things work out….

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Tick Tock

.

Time is no straight line,

it is a serpent

crossing the room sideways

like a glance.

It burns rubber

careening

around every corner

tossing irony,

like bits of confetti

into our pockets.

Time dances a circle

around the fire of desire

then churns out to sea

on a wave of kelp,

unraveling one dream

weaving another.

It flip flops

in crazy eights,

bounces like a rubber ball

on a hot sidewalk

reflecting all angles

oblique and acute

but always right.

At its best

time is a spiral

lifting our vision

until the end

when it shrinks into a dot

in the palm of our hand,

and with one breath

blows us away

into the heart of forever.

.

© 2014, 2017 Betty Hayes Albright

.

(a re-post)

.

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Forever in a Meadow

.

.

.

.

.

.

(o.

.

(Old one from high school, 1965)

.

Eternity came to mock Time

one day

with her ageless face

and the sun in her eyes.

She laughed at the way

I danced to the ticking

of a mere clock

and she said in a voice

that rang out like moon-chimes:

.

Come let me show you

the land of Right Now,

a place that is free

from the chains of your time.

It’s a world where light

shines out of Truth’s eye

and the smile on my face

will fill you with peace.

.

I started to follow

but just then a whistle

made me turn back –

it was noon in the valley

and I would be late!

Turning to look

at her beauty once more

I found she had vanished

into Everywhere.

.

(c) 1965, 2014 Betty Hayes Albright

Pencil drawing (c) 1995, 2014

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Strings

(an older one from 1996)

.

Heart strings can stretch

across great distance

but some, like rubber

come stinging back.

.

Some are of glass

blown lovingly

from a piper’s lips

but they break under stress.

 .

Others are fire,

smoky and hot

but snuffed out in a hiss

when it rains.

 .

Some are braided with silk

and rich in hue

but alas, they shrink

in the heat.

 .

And then there are strings

from a poet’s heart spun

made of light

at the speed of forever.

 .

(c) 1996  Betty Hayes Albright

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Singularity – 2012 posting

.

Comes that moment

when eyes connect

with a stranger’s

and we feel

that deep click

in the gears

of the cosmos

and we know him

forever

and it doesn’t matter

we’ll never meet again.

.

.

©  2012, 2018  Betty Hayes Albright 

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Always On Top – 2012 posting

(from 1976)

.

We can’t be held down,

we’re the ball bouncing back,

the unsinkable raft,

the bowl that won’t crack.

We can never be slain,

our core’s made of steel,

wherever we’re punctured

we readily heal.

Trample on us

and we’ll spring back to life –

we cut to the  truth

like an ever-sharp knife,

the magical candle

that cannot stop burning,

the inner child

who never stops learning.

Knock on our window’s

unbreakable glass,

mow us down, we’ll grow back

like invincible grass.

Light as a bubble

we can’t be detained,

we’ll rise towards the light

and ever remain.

.

©  1976, 2016  Betty Hayes Albright

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