Something Else Poem by Daniel Brick

Monday 15 May 2017

I woke up suddenly
at 5 am this morning,
rested, refreshed, ready
for the lovely day promised
by both the birds songs and
the clear pervasive sunlight.
It was a morning with no shadows,
a ulyssean dawn
shining with possibilities.
What was there not to hope for?

Bur something else happened...
I was not alert to the change:
I was still living inside
my expected day, unaware
of a shift that ran through
space and made time accept
a different outcome
from the beginning I had
witnessed, as I stood
on my balcony at dawn.

The sky darkened, The rain
fell around 1 pm, just enough
to spoil a family's picnic,
or make eager revelers disband.
We were sheltered from it, eating
our lunch, enjoying our conversation.
We deftly attuned ourselves to the day's
changing melody, perhaps singing new lyrics
to a familiar song we know by heart.
That's how we live, that's how we thrive...

But still the day had been
consecrated doe a different
purpose, a purpose shaped and
rehearsed in my mind, as I looked
into the early light from my balcony.
It was already half-lived
as I thought my way through
its natural wonders,
across its various places,
fully satisfied by its calm

and riot, those twin experiences
of Spring becoming Summer. That may
be a sufficient explanation. But I see
Ulysses striding the length of his
lone ship, exhorting his tired men,
'Stay true to your sworn purpose,
keep hope alive, and you will see
your Ithaca again! ' Did I surrender
too quickly in these latter days of ease?
Did I abandon the consecrated day
as if it were just an ordinary day?