Early peek at poetry I am writing for my next collection —
“VS“…poetry that reflects on the tensions and conflict we overcome.
(It might just be the prequel to “Seeking Ordinary Joy.”)
"The Conceit of Change"
No Person Steps in the Same River Twice
~ Heraclitus, c. 500 BC
I tripped on a generation’s bright future
on a forest trail along the Hoquiam River:
remnants of train track buried beneath
ferns and moss carpeting the forest floor.
It looked eerily out of place—a scene from
a dystopian movie—built early last century
by men cocksure the road to tomorrow was
paved in timber, the same muse that inspired
the Lumber Building, the first skyscraper in
Minneapolis—then the Wall Street of wood—
unaware of a day when money would be made
moving ones and zeros, not trees and saws.
Every decade or so, something tricks me into
thinking I am witnessing the future: Neil Armstrong’s
small step toward Mars, Concorde shrinking oceans,
social media bringing people together,
and now Artificial Intelligence, which may become
a future generation’s moss-covered memory.
That train track did nothing wrong to earn its fate,
it simply stood still while the forest swelled.
Yet even I—an adherent of Heraclitus— may soon
sleep near a stream while futures float past in the current.
Seeking Ordinary Joy 