The past is a now forever gone by,
The future a now that neither is, nor may not be.
In time not enough to measure, the present a now that presses into memory.
So force no choice must I, the only now is now,
For the world its claim to lay, and make itself to bow.

From first life, a million years four thousand times over to become,
Why then, in this flicker of an instant a lifetime we dub,
Exist should I in time erased in its entirety,
Or in a moment not real, that with anxiety I hope to see?
Can I not learn simply in the now to be?

In this twinkling with which I am graced,
I become enraged, and kindred humankind debase,
My only reward a loss of now to face.
From needy, material and comfort I withhold, but whither to be sent?
Perhaps a future now where neither can be spent?

In my now I savor my breath; I feel my step and see,
As in prophets’ lesson, I do to others as I would have done to me,
I dream, not of that I once enjoyed or wish again to take,
Nor of what or where I will,
But dream of life, ideas, epiphany.

Should my now I make no effort to redress,
Then in this flash must I find joy,
For what can the worth of the moment be,
When absent from the light of its reality?

Aubrey McWatt