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The Flag of The Future, A new year's eve poem | Poem

 
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December 31, 1999
 

THE FLAG OF THE FUTURE

 
The irresolute intimidation of time

     unreigned and distorted

        yet-the-more for our futile efforts

           to corral and tame it

The unpredictable sea, this time

     that ebbs and swells

        tossing and sifting those dreams

           that once felt so different

The resonant, undying echo

     reborn, reassigned

        rediscovered, released

          in which life thrives

And our insatiable questing

     and gnawing at the fabric of it.

This is then what brings us here

   to what ever cross-roads this might be.

To all manner of proposal that lay 

     before us

       our resolve is seduced and taunted

         as if each knows our true heart

As if we had no previous purpose

     or knowledge nor experience

        as seems obvious in need

          to have brought us thus far

"Tis the personal nature of "vision"

      that gives such forcefulness

         -- it is in common vision

           that we become most personally

              involved

Vision is our way to see around time

     to penetrate the endless-ness

        to create and recreate

          the texture of our future.

We are thus the future

     the possibilities by which reality

        is steered and guided

          towards those visions

Or toward ultimate chaos

      if the scourge of ancient

        and dying thought-forms

          is not over-come and cured

This is forsooth a colloid

     a nexus, a bunching of time

        the window through which

          is reached such higher visions

That which dwells on this threshold

     the hysterical armies of our 

       outmoded ways

          are making one last stand

         which we are hurried to transcend.

But not so hurried that we forget

    and abandon that of the past

      which has none-the-less served us 

         well

     and correctly brought us thus-far.

For truly we will become the keepers

    the guardians of that which was

       righteously salvaged

         from our often tortured path

Our strength is that future

     from which these visions are 

        supported

    and those past through whom

       spirit was able to manifest

Invincible is the army

     which shoulders its common vision

        in a deeply personal way

           behind the flag of the future.
 

- Paul Malécot
 
 

UNTITLED

we invent the future
ourselves
we need to try to remember
ourselves
we don't know the names anymore
where we have been
hints and intimations all around
that we hurry past
ourselves
something half remembered
half buried
ourselves
- Ken Peters
 

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