what time is it really is it?
by strannikov
what time is it really is it?
i see the mountain through the trees.
through the trees the mountain i see.
through the mountains I see trees
lit in late day's clouds and haze
before or until arriving smoke
from nearby mountains other trees.
communicable, contagious thirst
among forests, trees, and human folk
also claiming residency
where trees reside and water does not.
when beholding the tree, see the forest.
when beholding the forest, see the tree.
when beholding forest and tree
when beholding tree and forest,
now also persons people see,
now see water no more there.
through bristling trees and desiccate air
where mountain glaciers no more drip,
the roar of fire speaks lasting heat,
enduring drought, channels burning dirts.
no one wants to share parcht thirsts
with forests or with trees.
what time is it really is it?
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Author's Note
Almost as generated spontaneously, with inevitable edits.
(I wrote and posted this as a meditation on the California wildfire season of 2020, but as events transpired, it also served as an anticipation of the California and Oregon wildfire season of 2021.)
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I like the play with language in the first half. Also, I connect with the poem's morphing into something different -- from "through the trees the mountain i see" to "communicable, contagious thirst" to "when beholding the tree, see the forest". Good.
The "beholding the tree" stanza" could serve as a page in the Dogen Zenji playbook if he'd ever had one. I like this part of the poem a great deal.
"now see water no more there" shook me. Very effective.
Bookending the work with "what time is it really is it?" communicates - at least for me - a type of oblivion that the individual, society, the world, the planet, galaxy, universe is moving toward.
Good piece, Edward.
the roar of fire speaks lasting heat
Love this.
I love this image: "contagious thirst
among forests" *
Enjoyed.
time and time again... x every time.
*****
Yoda speaks. A playful look at End Times.
Sam: thank you, thank you, and thank you.
The title/refrain sat on a page alone for almost two weeks when I picked it up after watching Pikes Peak & vicinity for a quarter-hour, and then it tumbled out like the proverbial avalanche. (I recall being athirst for water at the time.)
I'm glad to hear the "beholding the tree/forest" stanza works at all: I'd been fearing that it sounded overly rhetorical, but then with some edits and revisions, it did begin to remind me of passages from (someone's paraphrase of) the Lao-Tzu.
Thank you again, Sam, do stay well and keep up all good work.
Dianne: grazie grazie grazie to you, too, for your generous response.
The germ of this piece being a verbal accident, I left it alone until some apt referent or a fit antecedent could suggest itself as the substance of the temporal issue. The avalanche ensued.
Thank you again, Dianne, you stay well, too, and keep up all good work.
Beate: thank you, thank you, and thank you.
Borrowed or stolen, the transposition of "contagion" from plague-era concerns to other emerging challenges posed a temptation I did not try to resist.
Thank you much, Beate, do stay well, and keep up all good work.
Gary: bolshoi spasibo (times three) to you.
I still find it distinctly odd how no one substantively contests the amassing data while quibbling over their significance: by the time consensus arrives globally, the data will be as formidable as some mountain chains (though this could provide perches from which to observe risen sea levels).
Thank you again, Gary, stay well and keep up all good work.
Amantine: grazie, danke, i merci.
If I may say: a hundred years into the Quantum Era, and chronometry is NOT getting any simpler. (And I still harbor suspicions that our local temporal velocities are actually and in fact nudging upwards.)
Thank you, Amantine, do stay well and keep up all good work.
Agnes Ezra: thank you, thank you, and thank you.
If I may also say: I continued to edit and revise for forty-eight hours after posting, the form remains much the same, tho.
Thank you once again, Agnes E., do you too stay well and keep up all good work.
Matvei: bolshoi spasibo, bolshoi spasibo, bolshoi spasibo!
(I don't think your invocation of Yoda augurs Force-filled fame or fortune for this piece, however. For this piece I do well to hope for a fate as tentative as for something by Han-shan or by one of his sidekicks.)
Thanks again, Matvei, get well and stay well and keep up all good work.