Shock And Awe - Max Reif (with spelling correction)

[Larry Robinson]

Shock And Awe

Up and Over
C’mon, You want
To live forever?

Oh My God, this great beast
We call life—
Everything dear, in the precious moment,
Love in the quick of being—
It devours everything that grows or happens
Birth, death—means nothing in the tide in time
Short chapters and long moments
A howling din
Scattering pages in the wind
The beast bounds through 
generations—
The absolute certainty
Of an Amazonian flow to the sea
Then cycles back again——
Unstoppable, a downpour—a law unto itself
Constantly repeating, repeating
The New Day becomes In The Old Days
Again and again
Day in and day out
Our Lives roll on, and on
Each with their own Time
Each feeling in the center
Of all during the run
But always passing on—
The current gone back to the future
Just like now once again at the end
To the start of another’s beginning—
All going on at once
The voracious roar of infinity
Like a steam locomotive
In the ancient chugging

     - Max Reif









"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."
    - Wendell Berry