I was never there, the day everything changed.
When was that? When World War II ended?
When Einstein discovered relativity?
When nine-eleven crashed into infamy?
Or when Harry really met Sally?
Or when you simply ate a peach that summer day,
juice deliciously dripping down your tanned wrist
and somewhere I suppose, a child was born.
Truth is, everything changes
with every breath we take.
Every pivot, every spin, every loping run,
something new becomes.
Nothing stands still. Except perhaps
sentinel mountains in the Norwegian fjords.
Yet even they are marred by subtle granular shifts
as we gaze up at their rugged rockface surface.
Like when we turned around
and our children were adults.
We noticed when their braces came off that summer,
but we didn’t register the daily momentum.
Hell, we just celebrated a New Year
and it’s already old. Even this moment.
It’s now the moment that just was.
Did you blink? Did you notice it pass by?
Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today Merril gives us a list of podcast titles and asks us to write a poem including two of the titles: I’ve chosen “I Was Never There” and “Pivot”. Image from Pixabay.com
lillian the home poet 
Nice one 🥂
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Thank you, Paula!
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we only notice when we are present I think… and we miss even more fearing missing out.
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So very true!
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And it’s those small moments that are so important.
I especially like:
“We noticed when their braces came off that summer,
but we didn’t register the daily momentum.”
Thank you for joining in, Lillian!
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I enjoyed the prompt!
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I’m so pleased you did!
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Very nicely done, Lill! Timing is everything, and you’ve got it spot on in this poem. I especially love the romantic realism of:
‘when you simply ate a peach that summer day,
juice deliciously dripping down your tanned wrist’
and the stanza about the Norwegian fjords.
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Glad you enjoyed, Kim. I thought adding in something mundane, like eating a peach, could make the point that in reality, everything is an important moment and moment by moment everything changes.
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Fine work throughout, L. Stanza 3 resonates most deeply with me. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you, Ron. Glad you enjoyed.
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Wonderful, Lillian. Our life is spinning just like the earth, and we don’t even realize it! I thought about this as I watched the special on Barbara Walters the other night! Amazing how much changes in a lifetime!
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That was an amazing special. The people she met and the guts she had to ask the questions she did. Quite a force she was.
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Wow. I love all the questions, and how the peach scene is as momentous as all the others. Which sets up the rest of the poem, every pivot, every loping run of it.
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Thank you. The peach moment was my favorite.
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The only constant is change… And since everything is in flux, even that is a paradox. Happy New Year (that is now 3 days old.)
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Yes, exactly. I look in the mirror, feeling as I approach the mirror, like I did when I was fifty, and then the seventy-five year old stares out at me and I sometimes thank, how did that happen? It’s like the line in Fiddler on the Roof when the father sees his daughter in her wedding dress and he says/sings, I don’t remember getting older, when did she?
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This is wonderful!
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So glad you enjoyed, Adda. Just getting to my comments and reading now as we’ve moved to San Diego for two months and the packing, then unpacking, then getting our rental apartment filled with groceries etc has taken me away from my reading and writing. Back to it now, in the sunshine! 🙂
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Great poem Lillian.
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Thank you so much!
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True, everything changes. A reminder for us to seize every second of the day.
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Exactly!
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Yes! So true, and beautifully expressed.
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Thank you, Sarah!
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this was such fun to read – loved all the questioning, the observations and the tempus fugit that moves the poem beautifully
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So very glad you enjoyed. And I learned a new term: tempus fugit!
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All very true. Nothing stands still, everything in motion.
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What’s that line from the popular song: turn, turn, turn…..
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I liked this a lot, especially that second stanza
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You made me smile. The peach part is also my favorite part of the write!
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So well done, Lillian!
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Thank you, Linda!
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You’re welcome.
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And it changes faster and faster, like a charged up tornado. It won’t slow down until humanity wears it down and tears away it parts. Nice thoughts, I wouldn’t have had these. Bless you, have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
..
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And happy new year to you as well….although the new year is aging as I write!
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Great poem 🙂
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Thank you so very much!
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Oh my yes Lil, fleeting time, so hard to capture totally accurately. Even photos are void the feelings of the moment they capture, though they can come close. I am fascinated by Time its relativity, its ability to stretch and contract, at least our perception of it, and perception to me is reality. Every day I look into the mirror and wonder who that wrinkled old man is I’m staring at, because though my body may feel the wear and pain, in my heart and in my soul I’m still a young man. But I’m not.I enjoyed this piece my friend, well written! 🙂✌🏼❣️
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Thank you so much, Rob. Funny you should mention the mirror…..some days I go to the mirror feeling like I’m fifty and am confronted with a seventy-five year old face….and now that I’ve had cataract surgery and don’t have to wear glasses, I am suddenly confronted with the bags and puffiness and dark circles under my eyes that have been hidden by my glasses all these years! Ah well…..I am still thankful for every day.
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Love your poem, Lillian … the last stanza my absolute favorite. Wishing you a happy, healthy 2023.
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Thank you, Helen. So glad you enjoyed.
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Well said. 🙂
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I try….thank you!
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🙂
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