The only thing that really lasts
is all the depth of lasting pasts.
While presence lasts no longer than now
and future runs and then asks how.
*
If everything done in now and here
is only to build history's glare,
then why toil your heart to stay
and your mind to never trudge astray?
*
How much does past really mean
if it's the only thing still seen
years after its time of light,
lives after we've lost the fight?
*
Does thought lend a hand
to try to understand
present, future, past
and how they each can last?
About the Creator
Rachel Steinmetz
Written expression is emotion at its peak; delve into it.
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FPS: The Last Flame Challenge Winners
Welcome to our first Winners Announcement of the year and to the final challenge in the Fall Poetry Series. The Last Flame invited writers to sit with endings, using fire as a central image to consider what remains when something burns out: ash, warmth, memory, silence, or the faint promise of what comes next. The strongest pieces treated endings as gradual rather than sudden, allowing them to flicker, dim, and linger.
By Vocal Curation Team6 days ago in Resources
Comments (3)
I love the poignancy of your writing so much - it has such an elegance. Wonderful ponderings and very true- the past does tend to take over the joys of the present 💜
so philosophical! The rhyming makes you slow down and read it carefully- great one!
Such a good poem, with much to think about. 🧐 excellent writing.