Finally…Spring!

Daffodils announce the Season

For those of us on the East Coast of the USA, it finally is beginning to feel like Spring! The recent rise in daily temperatures to the more seasonable level found me searching for a Spring theme to share with my readers here and in the process, I came upon a poem I wrote in the Spring of 1996! As a gift to a friend that I made in that year, who became someone who brought about a degree of emotional and intellectual upheaval as a result of that friendship, the following poem issued forth from me like a freight train derailing…

The Destination of Ages Past

A bold stroke precedes

The whispered reply;

A reluctant concession

Becomes invitation.

Penetrating glances and

The haunting depths of emotion,

Flood the twilight world

Of unspoken thoughts,

Dancing between

Momentary hesitations.

Ancient worlds ride the swift

Currents of eternal unconsciousness,

Sailing with boundless joy.

Here is the destination of ages past;

Rushing like hurricane-force winds

Toward our horizon,

Tenuous and fragile.

The power to shape the future eludes us;

The hand of destiny lingering

In the unseen tomorrows,

Contemplates the fate of our planet.

Hushed and deliberate,

We await the return of

What was foretold

Centuries ago.

© May 1996 by JJHIII24

Now, upon the recent rediscovery of the piece, experiencing a curious feeling of wonderment about the inspiration which produced this poem, I decided to dig into the archives to find and read a journal entry, written shortly after the moment of creation, which describes the moment of release, in striking terms which caught me by surprise…

“A pure and unrestrained release from the heart of life…I trembled as it arose from the depths of my unconscious, up through my head, and out through my fingers, gliding on the tip of my pen across the page…In order to find their way to the page, the words had to navigate a host of detours, laid down from the lengthy delays since the last attempt to speak poetically. From the moment when the release occurred, to the moment when the words fell silent, I somehow felt as though I was being informed that my role in world events had its origins in ancient worlds…and that the distance from me, in cosmic terms, was no more than a blink of an eye…”

Our connection to the world of the ancients may seem so distant and archaic that references which include such elements may not resonate with modern readers, but in this instance, it seemed to me at the time that the eruption required their inclusion, without fully understanding how exactly it was the case.

Spring typically finds me in some sort of personal turmoil, and this year has been very much like one of those occasions. These words seem just as relevant today as they did years ago.