The Hourglass

The Hourglass

The sand softly falls, sparkling in the light,
layer on layer, marking time’s progress.
We’re swept up in the flow toward final night.

We can only observe. Try as we might,
to foretell the future, it’s just a guess.
The sand softly falls, sparkling in the light.

In fear, we seek solace in words we write
to comprehend what we cannot express.
We are swept in the flow toward final night.

Yet we are blessed, as a grain flashes bright,
to understand briefly all that we possess.
The sand softly falls, sparkling in the light.

We trust in a strength that’s more than our might
sharing the comfort in words we profess.
We’re swept up in the flow toward final night.

Perhaps, in the end, that is our true plight:
to trust in the journey, not to obsess.
The sand softly falls, sparkling in the light,
We’re swept up in the flow toward final night.


Notes
In celebration of the life, wisdom. and courage of Lyle Sticktalker – friend and fellow traveler.
Form: Villanelle A Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem consisting of a very specific rhyming scheme: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2. The first and the third lines in the first stanza are repeated in alternating order [as the third line of each stanza] throughout the poem, and appear together in the last couplet (last two lines). The villanelle has no established meter, although most nineteenth-century villanelles have used trimeter or tetrameter and most twentieth-century villanelles use pentameter.


Ken