An only certainty (a poem)
Two poems about it — and the preciousness it confers
Here’s an old poem, I wrote over a decade ago—the words from which only ring more true as time goes on…
Certainty
Woke this morning
Felt my mortality
In the tall pine that stretched his arms
In the sky that poured blue
In the molten sun that washed my hair in warmth
I felt her hand, her fearsome presence
She smiled and I saw her eyes kind
Some tears for being misunderstood
She said I come not to bring darkness
Don't shun me, nor avoid my thought
In one eternal moment I'll come for you
I know that darkness looms in your mind
The loved ones you grasp, hold tenderly today
The sun, the wind, your life, this fragrance
But it's me and my certainty that makes you love
These treasures mere trinkets were it not for me
This beauty but a facade, this sun but a flicker
This life but a whore, without my fealty
One day it will be washed
Ashes and dust I prepare
Make them shine for us today
The ephemeral breath, this passing life
I grant jewels of all here and now
'Tis all I promise, more precious than
Any king of the universe could ever grant!
— reena | 2012
From my debut poetry collection: Arrivals & Departures: Journeys in Poems
And a more recent, and perhaps more playful one, along similar lines. This latter one follows the formal form of an “Abecedarian” i.e., each line starting alphabetically, going A-Z. And yes, I cheated on the “X”!
No escape hatch
Arriving as we do
Before we know it
Catching our breath sometimes
Dreading every step at others
Every one of us must pass here
Feeling this unwelcome mortal idea
Gripping even more tightly
Holding on for dear life, literally
If not merely metaphorically
Just fearful enough to pretend to
Keep up appearances of normalcy
Learning or trying to learn new tricks or
Meandering to dangerous grounds like fools
Not finding the answers there either
Opening up our hearts if we’re wise
Pretending to not care if we’re not
Questioning the meaning of it all other times
Remaining the easily fooled fools we are
Suspecting eventually we’re not alone
That this feeling arrives for everyone
Unlike the fortunes of circumstance that vary
Very much like air, the sky and love instead
We all feel it; what we do with it another matter
‘Xalting our joy in this chance for a life or losing ourselves
You know you’d do better accepting that like
Zebra stripes are inseparable, so’s life and death!
- reena | April 2023
I’d love your comments, dear reader, on what you think of these poems and what they’re about.
Thank you, Reena.
Maybe we humans experience less time but more intensity as a compensation, than our kin the turtles and the trees who live for more placid decades and centuries.
Reena, as I approach my 80th birthday, reading your “Certainty” left me in remembrance that I am / we are held by something very, very big. It expresses so much of what I feel. My blessings to you on this day.