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Catching Up
An hour passes in a second.
A month goes by in just an hour.
The rosy future that once beckoned
Has now become a withered flower.
Complaints about the pace of time
Do nothing to arrest its flight.
Neglecting chores is not a crime,
But guilt may keep you up at night.
Attend to what you need to do;
Be diligent and never tarry,
For wasting time will make of you
A foolish Curly, Moe or Larry.
The truly busy will obey
This universal rule of thumb:
Get down to work without delay—
No better time will ever come.
.
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New Year’s Irresolution
Another year is down the drain
And only rings of scum remain.
No resolutions shall be pledged
But those from former failures dredged,
And slender candles in their holders
Gutter as the yule log smolders.
The pall of growing debt confounds the brain,
And all the blades we whet are brittle-edged.
No longer do potations dull the pain,
Nor angels lift the burdens from our shoulders.
In stubbled fields where reckless bets are hedged,
The litter in eroded furrows molders.
Another year, another chance
For great success or new romance,
But what is standing in the way
Is hesitance to seize the day:
Resolve and steadfastness are lacking
And our foundations now are cracking.
If we will only don our big-boy pants,
Then we would very likely be okay;
But if we hang our hopes on happenstance,
Our nascent plans will have no proper backing.
So let us bend our backs and make some hay
Before a day of reckoning sends us packing.
.
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C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India. His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.
Excellent poetry – particularly like Catching Up: from “The rosy future that once beckoned / Has now become a withered flower…” to “Get down to work without delay— / No better time will ever come” eminently sensible, very wise, and pithily expressed. Very good.
Right here I believe I am reading the words of someone who has already learned these lessons.
Two neat poems on the “tempus fugit” theme. I liked the first one better, since my immediate reaction to the second was annoyance at the shift in structure from stanza to stanza. But then I realized that the author had done this deliberately, to suggest vacillating willpower and indecision.
As for the shift in structure, Joseph, sorry to annoy, and perhaps there is something to your explanation of why I did it, but the reason at the top of my mind was that I wanted to re-use the same rhyme sounds in the paired stanzas, but with a different scheme.
Two very wise and enjoyable poems to begin the New Year The reference to the Three Stooges was so fitting. Now I must clean my house without delay to begin the New Year, “Before a day of reckoning sends (me) packing!”
Sometimes even potato chips are wise, Roy, and sometimes (as we hope the new administration is going to do) it is wise to clean house. You are nobody’s stooge, I reckon.
Great stuff, C.B.! Serious and fun at the same time. “No better time will ever come,” indeed! Fun rhymes, and a creative embellishment on the trite “down the drain” phrase (“And only rings of scum remain.”)
Thanks, Cynthia. Writing poems is, if nothing else, serious fun. And I might add: carpe diem and memento mori.
I love “Catching Up”, especially the first stanza and the last two lines.
I’ve printed this one out so it’s handy to re-read throughout the new year.
Yeah, Cheryl, I should post a few copies around the house myself, just to remind me of what I once thought I knew.
I too especially love “Catching Up.” Am I the only Millennial here who gets the reference to Curly, Moe, and Larry?
We elders all know Curly, Moe, and Larry. Do you remember Shemp?
Lol, I’m completely blanking on Shemp! I have vague young-childhood memories of watching video cassettes of the Three Stooges, I think recorded from the TV shows by my parents years before. (CB, viz-a-viz your comment below, my parents are indeed boomers!) Thanks to Evan for posting the link below. I don’t know if these episodes will help me “get down to work without delay” — but they should definitely help an hour pass in a second!
Rachel, wow, you’re making me feel old. I almost used a Three Stooges pic to go with this piece. Enjoy their cartoon-like fun in videos such as this:
https://www.ganjingworld.com/video/1fpmdtf9du96vsKRuaY9GNAoI1bk1c
-Evan Mantyk
As a Boomer, Rachel, I’m not even sure I know what a Millennial is. I guess the Stooges’ short films are still available. I don’t know whether or not you are the only one, but probably not.
I love these poems, C.B. — they are as sharply crafted as they are insightful and wry. Your work is always a master class in rhyme and meter — and the utterly unexpected. I’ve never seen classical poetry which referenced The Three Stooges before! But what generally fascinates me most when I read an Anderson poem is the unique, unsentimental voice which is present in much of your work. You observe and explain. There is something in your larger-picture commentary on various human foibles and phenomena which reminds me of a Greek chorus.
I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and wish you all the best in the new year!
I’ve never been in a Greek chorus, Brian, but I know what an apostrophe should look like, and I am very sentimental when it comes to logic, reason, and exposing inevitable consequences. Somewhat as with John Clare, Shemp is often overlooked.
C.B., I love your wicked wit and your ability to see life from an angle I’ve never explored. That is why both of these poems appeal to me, especially “New Year’s Irresolution” with its intriguing meter and rhyme scheme. For me, plumbing the depths of meaning (your poems always contain golden nuggets of wisdom) comes first and the fact the form doesn’t overshadow your words delights me… in fact, the form seems to enhance the sentiment. I am curious, inspired, and impressed.