On The Clock Poem by Nika McGuin
On The Clock
Outside yonder door
unfolds and breaks loose
the most vivid, beautiful country scene
ever to be seen, although only a sliver
of it is even visible
It reaches outward
though nothing can reach back
nothing can parallel its efforts
for a thick pane of clear glass blocks
its beloving grasps in every which way
Still yet, it reaches forward
in layers of lush color each one stacked
in sloping ribbons upon the other:
the first a hazy sky of blue fading
into the richest vanilla creme
Creme interrupted by the leafy heads
of trees poking out into the scene
well beneath this layer of trees lies
a plane of grass mottled in gold and green
Its verdant spades wave a humble greeting
inviting all to roll n' rump about in their field
but to do so one would have to
cross the ever perilous byway
Upon which vehicles race past
at the speed of glistening sunlight
a few of which pull periodically
into the lowest layer of them all,
A parking lot, of grays, browns,
yellows, and blues; still most speed by
never noticing the rapt receptionist
at her lonely post, but she more than
notices them, she writes of them
There in their natural setting just beyond
her crystal encasement, outside yonder door,
yonder portrait-like entrance way -
she writes of her dreams, that cannot yet be touched
She is on the clock
This is so wonderfully observed and brilliantly conveyed; and the natural details are beautiful in a way that doesn't all attention to itself and thus are all the more affecting than an overstated gushing could possibly be. But BEAUTY it is! and the plentitude is head-spinning in one moment and very calming the next. Iknow that I will enjoy re-reading this in a moment but first my impression upon first reading. I felt a shiver of delight when I read in stanza 6 that amazing line VEHICLES RACE BY / AT THE SPEED OF GLISTENING SUNLIGHT (WOW! what a striking description of motion - it's worthy of one of those futurist poems of the 1920s which worshipped the new technology of speed) and at that moment it hit THIS IS WHAT NIKA SEES AT WORK! and a stanza you finally identify the receptionist - I'm only going to have that surprise once but it's memorable... But there are so many things I will enjoy on later readings, like the unfolding of the sights you see almost like painted panels, each one topping the beauty of what before it. There's a stillness in this part of the poem (before the SPEED OF SUNLIGHT takes over!) and we can contemplate much as you are - with a sense of leisure, time enough to draw in all the loveliness our eyes can hold. I won't quote directly, just identify stanzas 3,4, & 5 as among the most felicitous natural descriptions I've read in living memory. Part of the wonder of the natural scene is that it is so intensely focused as you peer down a corridor visible from your desk. We observe the scene in the same way. So beautiful.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/26/2024 11:25:05 PM # 1.0.0.1119
A beautiful poem on Nature.Well expressed Well done Col Muhammad Khalid Khan