I don’t understand time at all. It ebbs and flows, waxes and wanes, runs and walks, never stopping, never reversing. It confuses me, vexes me, perplexes me. I have written several poems on it, have thought about it in terms of physics and philosophy, have read scientific and religious interpretations of it, and have always walked away confused. Why is time like this?
That’s what today’s poem is about.
Alright, let’s start in 3… 2… 1!
The clock it ticks, the clock it tocks, never budges, never stops. Seconds passing, minutes gone, and hours marching on and on. The days they come, the days they go, they shift and slide and slip and flow. They turn to weeks and months and years, of heartbreaks hard or happy cheers. The years, they flit on tiny wings, like blurry, buzzy, bumble things. They loop-de-loop and zoom about and whisk our birthdays in and out. We age and change and grow and know, and time, it comes, and time, it goes. It's always there, in sun or snow, it never stops, it always flows. But though it's strange, and seldom fair, it comes and goes we know not where. Just one sweet truth to keep in mind: there's time, my friend, of every kind. There's time, you see, of love and warmth, there's time, you see of every form. There's time, you see, of sadness too, it's time, you see, that pulls us through. Yes, time, like a shapeshifting sprite, dances with us day and night. It swirls and twists in endless grace, placing us in each new place. Yes, time, that trickster, wise and true, holds precious gifts in store for you. So don't obsess on what is gone, or what in future will come on. Look at the world before your eyes, and hear its tune as time flies by, and heed this lesson, young and old - embrace each moment as it's told.
That’s it! Thanks for reading edition 160 of Hello Universe.
When was the last time you felt time fly away faster than you expected? For me it was during the trip I made last week to meet my friends. Those 4 days flew away faster than 4 regular hours haha!
Share your experience with the Hello Universe community in the comments below.
Some Fun Stuff
This is where I share something cool to read, something cool to listen to, and something cool to watch! The underlined words are links that you can click to visit the recommended content.
1. Check out this visualization of how AI language models think: A beautiful visualization of how AI language models think probabilistically of next words to be generated in a sentence. Check it out!
2. Listen to Mr. Fox In The Fields: A delightful and calming tune from a Wes Anderson movie composed by Alexandre Desplat. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face!
3. Watch “Conan O’Brien Must Go”: Regular readers of Hello Universe know of my love for Conan. I was absolutely delighted when this new travel show was announced, and binged all 4 episodes this weekend. The first episode is a bit of a slow start, but the other 3 are just pure delight. Conan never shies away from committing to the bit, as was evidenced in his “Hot Ones” episode, and that commitment to bits comes to beautiful light in this show too. Check it out, especially the Thailand and Argentina episodes, and it’s guaranteed to leave you in splits!
That’s it for this week, see you next Tuesday!
Oh wow, I had a long chat with someone earlier today about time, Punit - your post has really resonated with me! My friend and I were saying how very, very quickly time is passing, and remembering how it was so much slower when we were children. The summer holidays stretched on forever, consecutive Christmases seemed to have YEARS between them, and I swear five years passed between every birthday. I loved those days, don't get me wrong, but I wish I'd appreciated the slower pulse of time back then compared to the whizzing clock and calendar these days!
The Hands of time stop for no one...I have a painting on my wall of an hourglass. I call it the Sands of Time... with sand dropping down and hands trying to stop it. It was painted by Alfred Doleza who was from Vienna, Austria.l.... His newsletters showed one of his artworks on its cover; and I subscribed for years. Hope you check out my substack it's entitled: This Crazy Upside Down World! ....Voila! an Answer! ... Barbara charis