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The now on which the shadow stands

I love poetry.  On a couple other occasions I’ve posted poetry on this blog (here and here).  I’ve even posted some of my own poetry (here and here).  Presenting language in the form of poetry causes us to consider it differently; to automatically engage the emotions and open the mind and heart to be changed.

I could tell you that time is fleeting, a truly precious, limited commodity.  I could encourage you to seize every hour today and wring it for every moment you can.  Or I could just let the poem speak for itself:

“The Sun-Dial at Wells College”
Henry Van Dyke, 1911

The shadow by my finger cast
Divides the future from the past:
Before it, sleeps the unborn hour,
In darkness, and beyond thy power:
Behind its unreturning line,
The vanished hour, no longer thine:
One hour alone is in thy hands,
The now on which the shadow stands.

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