There is a time for everything.
A time to live
A time to die
But when time stands still
And the hands on the clock
That make the present the past
Stop!

Then there is only darkness.
Not "presence."
Not being in the moment
Not being "mindful"
Just darkness

Like eyes closed
Or the groping for a torch
When the lights have gone
Or the dull thud
In a dark heart.

Darkness is home
Shelter
It has neither light
Nor vision
It is blindness
And stumbling.

And you with the light
Why do you stand there
Shining your light at me?
Do you not see
That I am blind
That in the dark
I cannot fathom the light
Not even the shadow

Only people passing by
Their moving silhouettes on the wall
Like a movie that is never still
And you can't hold on
To a single scene
Before it has gone.

But my eyes are stapled tight
It isn't agony
Just pain
Which is the same
As coming out
Of a womb
And crawling back in again

"I stand at the door and knock
If any man hear my voice
And open the door
I will come in to him
And eat with him
And him with me"
Said, the Son of God.

I can't find the door.
I did once
It only led to another door.

The End of the Beginning

A torn and tattered time table is what I take back with me tonight

I take students torn away from me tonight

I take the incomplete syllabuses.

Of my students

And want to complete those lessons tonight.

I take my love for them tonight

I take conversations

Meanderings

Questions

Debates

And smiles

For those magical journeys

Through time and space

That got us here.

Our human journey.

Our link with all before us.

And the link we’ll leave behind us

For those to come.

That’s what I teach.

History.

And now our relationship?

Is it history too?

As I touch my steering wheel

And watch myself steering away from them

This drive is the loneliest one

Even though it is full of so many people

Some who will go to the next class

Some who will leave the next class

Some who will drift into their next station

Away from school

Another marker in their journey

In another country

To another future

But time stands still

And they carry the same spirit with them

Wherever they go

And I know

At the deepest core of my heart

That their spirits are beautiful

And that makes me smile

As I drive home tonight