Brevity
By Norm Olson, Nikiski
O Time, I’ve been so cruel to you in words penned in the past,
But all ambitions, hopes and dreams were on your altar cast.
Great things I once envisioned in lands I longed to see,
And happiness in each tomorrow from a love I longed to free.
So listen little children while in carefree days you play,
The constant ticking of the hour as seconds slip away.
Oh can’t you see the flying geese or the woods in Autumn’s hue?
Oh can’t you comprehend, dear child, Time’s brief hold on you?
And from each poet’s troubled heart and lover’s sad refrain
Come echoes of those vanished hours that I wish were born again.
For Time to each of you will give one day, one hour, no more!
To love, to live, to each one give that which you’re living for.
So now to Time I resign ambitions, hopes, and dreams,
And stagger to my waiting bed midst children’s playful scenes.
For Time is pressing quickly now, my future is all past,
And present seems so shortened now in lengthening shadow’s cast.
Please don’t go fast my vision clear, and hearing stay awhile.
And mind, don’t wander far away, and feet, just one more mile.
And before Time’s crier calls and I no more can live,
O tongue, O heart, repeat these words: To thee my love I give.
For as I with all earth’s mortals go, beyond my sight I see
That although I’ve been so cruel to Time, Time’s been good to me.
