Being in the Moment

I have been in love with the Now since grade 10, when I read Henry David Thoreau's Walden. He famously wrote: "In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line."
Whew! That was it for me. I began at that moment to seek a direct experience of living in the moment, living in the Now. I was 16 years old. I am now 51 years old. I have still not accomplished that feat of living always in the Now.
When I was somewhere in my twenties, I wrote a poem which I titled Live There


Here it is.

Only the immediate line of vision,
Only an off-beat pulse;
I want to hang, precisely balanced,
On the brink of time,
Go out on that flimsy wind-swaying branch
And live there.

That expresses some of the tendency toward experiencing only the Now moment which has been a companion to me through these years. It's good to have a goal. (smiling here!)

Here is another poem, written when I was in my early thirties, which expresses an experience of being fully present in the Now.


      March 7th, 1992

Now I am dried rose petals
Of deepest salmon
Glowing in a clean white dish

I titled it by the date on which I wrote it because I had nothing else to call it. It represented, literally, a moment in time. If I could have felt comfortable with putting the time on there, as part of the title as well, I would have. I tried it and it just looked silly. 3:42 pm, March 7th, 1992 or something similar. I remember the moment very well. The light pouring in through my west facing windows made the colours come alive.

And therein lies a clue to the resolution of my quest, perhaps; for it is beauty that brings me into a full consciousness and appreciation for what surrounds me in any given moment. It is when I am out of doors, in the world which I love so much, and I am taken into a full awareness of the instant by something that catches my aesthetic eye - colours, a silhouette, a joyfully moving child or dog..... It is love and appreciation for what IS that brings me into the Now. And, not surprisingly, the poems that I, or others, have written which seem to me to be most truly representative of what I try to accomplish by the writing of poetry, bring me into the Now. My hope as I write poetry, is that it will bring those who read it into the Now as well.

Try this one....

   Eastern Townships Evening


White and silver and black
Shadows and clear, cold silence
Just me and the moon and the wind
For company.


I remember composing that as I walked, restless, sleepless, feeling the pressing passion of my love for the world, in the frigid solitude of the Schweizer's Farm in Sutton at one o'clock on a January morning. I love moments! Well, some of them.

I'm called away now by two things - one is an errand to be run in the village below my mountainside home. The other is the heat, which pulls at me, whispering of afternoon naps and lazy thoughts.

I'll write more soon!