These instants become Crystals.²
Here we’re trapped in the Amber
Of this moment—there is no Why.³
Though but for one Moment—
It Exists, Exists: this alone suffices.⁴
We Narrow our life down to this Moment:⁵
Our talk is of Heres & Nows, our conduct
Likewise: in no act is any Future, any Past—⁶
Each moment irresistibly Transforms us:
Breaking us open each time anew!⁷
We live for Now—and
What we call the Eternities—⁸
For short time: an Endlesse Moniment—⁹
Little Minutes, humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages—of Eternity!¹⁰
¹ Jorie Graham, Exchange
² Robert Bly, Driving Through Minnesota During the Hanoi Bombings
³ Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
⁴ Circe Maia tr. Jesse Lee Kercheval, The Bridge
⁵ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
⁶ Edna St. Vincent Millay, Theme and Variations
⁷ Anna Gurton-Wachter, Afterward to Utopia Pipe Dream Memory
⁸ H.G. Wells, The Croquet Player
⁹ Edmund Spenser, Epithalamion
¹⁰ Julia A. Fletcher, Little Things