Flow

Flow

A standing stone, or just bare bone,

A shadow beneath the trees.

A fleeting song, we are not long,

Merely faint notes on the breeze.

The rivers of time flow between the stars,

Where are the islands of those streams?

Though it seems in life we travel far,

We may be merely our own dreams.

So, hurry, don’t worry as you scurry,

Try to keep gaining in the chase!

So, hasten, outpace them and outrace them,

As the eons amass, we have but this brief taste.

Time erodes and thus leaves its mark.

We so fumbling and eager in the dark.

How will we manage the days we are given?

We not so mighty under the infinite heavens.

We are moments that ripple barely leaving a trace.

Years consume monuments, they erase the face.

These aging hands, where does the time go?

Nothing withstands the inescapable flow.

Then hurry, don’t worry as you scurry,

Try to leave a mark in this space!

So, hasten, keep pace then and outrace them,

As the eons amass, we have but this brief taste.

And here I mark time counting every breath,

Wondering how I may repay to earth the debt

Accumulated through tears, tribulation and sweat

Within the scant moments where I have been set.

And also today chasing all I still don’t know,

And gather what meager I might sow,

Or simply hear what breezes may blow,

And thus within the current, flow.

There is left no hurry, no scurry,

Time moves and I am carried apace.

I’m chastened, won’t hasten, what is there to outrace?

As the eons amass, we have but this brief taste.

Cliff Lake 5/13/2026

CliffSongs