on being given time.

-on being given time-
we may be sick of time; but time's the healer,
angry with time, but time's the peace-giver
afraid of time, but time-
destroyed by time, but time is also saviour

there might be some device worth discussing
the ripple behind a duck as it swims
opening the way to time without fussing
or that other ripple after music that breaks down walls
i had taken a walk around the block in the evening
after the crowded day, renewed acquaintance
with time as the most natural thing
i have seen it floating through a dance

it is, perhaps, our most complex creation
a lovely skill we spend a lifetime learning
something between the world of pure sensation
and the world of pure thought, a new relation
as if we held in balance the globe turning

even a year's not long, yet moments are.
this moment, yours and mine, and always given,
when the leaf falls, the ripple opens far,
and we go where all animals and children are
the world is open. love can breathe again.



-the work of happiness-
i thought of happiness, how it is woven
and how it is not sudden and it is not given
but is creation itself like the growth of a tree
no one has seen it happen, but inside the bark
another circle is growing in the expanding ring
no one has heard the root go deeper in the dark,
but the tree is lifted by this inward work
and its plumes shine, and its leaves are glittering.

for what is happiness but growth in peace
the timeless sense of time
and as the air moves, so the old dreams stir
the shining leaves of present happiness?
no one has heard thought or listened to a mind
but where people have lived in inwardness
the air is charged with blessing and does bless;
windows look out on mountains and walls are kind.



two prophetic poems by may sarton. making it ever so clear to me that if time is given, i must take it. and even though i could not see the growth as it was happening, i now bear summer fruits. the world is open. love can breathe again. and i'll live in a house someday where windows look out on mountains. i'm sure of it.