Contributor: Rick Hartwell

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Out of nothing, into nowhere,
Plodding, pushing, panting to move on.

The dynamics of this need to move --
In position, place, veneration --
Are seamless over time.
Individual struggles have
Abrupt beginnings and abrupt ends,
But only as viewed from within;
Viewed from without,
With perspective and
Distance, with disassociation,
There are no apparent seams.

Parts and scenes of individual dramas
Become a vast cacophony of
sound and swirling, perpetual motion --
Plodding, pushing, panting to excel --
To move, but in movement, only standing still.


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Rick Hartwell is a retired middle school (remember, the hormonally-challenged?) English teacher living in Moreno Valley, California. He believes in the succinct, that the small becomes large; and, like the Transcendentalists and William Blake, that the instant contains eternity.