Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Hope you didn't miss it.

***

11:11:11 11-11-11

“and never again for another hundred years.”

A hundred years ago, no clock
displayed time digitally in
hours:minutes:seconds
, and no clock displayed dates --
day:month:year.

A thousand years ago, time is told
by sun and shadow, the turning
of seasons, the movement of gods,
heroes and monsters across the night sky.

I stared at my plastic desk clock,
a cheap thing I got from a thrift store --



dots and dashes
connecting
pairs of
in
divi
dualistic
ones: harmony
in a time of many di

visions.
           I savored the moment,
for I am of the first generation
to see time displayed like this:

11:11:11 11-11-11

. In another hundred years, who knows
what beautiful arrangement of time
I will not be present for to bear witness.
***

Inspired in part by HVP's photo "Once every hundred"


Posted for dVerse Open Link Night Week 18.  Join us for some great reads and share your poem in this great community.

26 comments:

Brian Miller said...

hmmm...it was a moment, does make you wonder how they will tell time...maybe hologram...like the concrete part there too...

Anonymous said...

This is so cool. I golfed today with the Lady's group I belong to. One of the ladies got married at, you guessed it, 11-11-11-11-11.
And let's just say this is not a young group! Way to go!

Scarlet said...

I realized it too - that Nov. 11, 2011 was the number. Cool write, and I do like the hourglass shaped poem in the middle.

Happy day ~

Daydreamertoo said...

It does make you wonder if we'll even exist as we are in 100 years time. If we do, I fully expect they will have watches and everything else either wired to our brains or under our skin somewhere and gadgets will be a part of our bodies, and not strapped on us (as in wrist watch)
Very nice read, really enjoyed it.

hedgewitch said...

This is an interesting thought, and well-expressed. I'm glad that you take pleasure from the inevitable--in a way, it's hard not to regret a year when the eleventh of November was just a day in a waning year, unnamed, let alone each minute dissected and laid out. Maybe in a hundred years, we'll have gotten back there. Thanks for making me think. Liked this a lot.

Unknown said...

As I've enjoyed everything you've posted I really don't know if I can say this with a complete certainty, for this is the current piece in my mind, but this might be my favorite. I often think of nuances like this, but the transition to the desk clock you bought- that was a thing of beauty, tone, sentiment and so forth shifted on a dime, then shift again, and again. Love it. Bearing witness is something, and the idea of being there again, ends the piece with yet another thought provoking element.

My dad mentioned something about it, as it was his birthday as well. I said it's once in a hundred, and he mentioned well there's 12:12:12 next year, then that's it as far as numbers go. anyhow, again, really enjoyed the piece, thanks

Sheila said...

Very cool. I didn't even think about it on Friday. Weird

Laurie Kolp said...

Wow- I hadn't thought about it that way. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I did miss it!!!!! So interesting. Such a thoughtful poem. I hope the world is around then; I suspect time will be. K.

Ravenblack said...

Thanks everyone for your comments and feedback. :)

I didn't actually think much about it that day until I saw the photo my friend took. To confess, I actually had a "so-what" attitude when I saw people posting about what they did on the moment of all-ones. So I really thanked my friend for the photo, which caused me to pause and which inspired this.

@Fred: The day is particularly special because it is a bunch of one's I think. 12-12-12 would not have as much impact, I think. :)

@Brian, Daydreamer, Hedgewitch: it is fun to wonder what it would be in 100 years, a bit sad realising not having being able to see it, but who knows.

Thanks again for reading. :)

Anonymous said...

I love this poem and how much of your voice (seems to me) is in it. I'm going to have to sit with it for a while to say more because for now I just want to sit and imagine it read aloud. I too wonder how we'll represent time in the future (I think it will be implanted in our brains :)).

Ravenblack said...

Thanks Anna. Time could become an implant and we would be more punctual perhaps.

I will take some time with your poem... I saw you have included footnotes, much appreciate that! :D

Pat Hatt said...

Hey you never know, could extend the human life a good 50-100 years some where along the way and could see the next 1111111111 at your bay. Great verse.

Ravenblack said...

Pat: Thanks!

It's more possible if I am in my 20s that I might see the next 100. I don't know if it's a good thing to extend the human life that long. :D What would it mean to live beyond your era?

Unknown said...

the 11.11 of any year for me is always poignant for personal reasons ..so to me this year meant the same to me as any other but somehow I always find myself staring at the clock at 11.11 strange how we use number association when after all they are man made ! loved this thank you for sharing x

steveroni said...

Figure it will take just about 100 years more for us to accept and install metric system in our brain. We may be on another planet by then (Some of us (who, me?--grin!) are already there.

Maybe we will be using abaci...

I'll let you know!!! You and your 'hourglass' format--grin!
Very creative. Thank you!
PEACE.

Dulçe ♥ said...

Anotehr DAY so especial- yet just another day... gone by and then?

Great tribute to the date- shame it's gone- but hey we were there!!!

Ravenblack said...

Kez, Steve, Sweeter: thanks for your visit and comments! Cheers. :)

Shashidhar Sharma said...

Time is actually nothing but an imperfect perception of mind. And every moment is so unique that it never repeats itself. Its just that we have arbitrarily decided to start the time as we know if now some 2011 years ago... so its just a symbolic thing ... Having said that I must appreciate the beautiful way you have described this and put in so much interesting thing in this verse... I specially liked the hour glass you did with your formation... cool structure poetry there...
In the end you have so beautifully put the concept what i am talking about above... yes who know what beautiful arrangement of time will be in another 100 years...
thanks for sharing...

Shashi
ॐ नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya
http://shadowdancingwithmind.blogspot.com/2011/11/whispers-where-you-will-go.html

Anonymous said...

I wrote a long comment when I first read this on Tuesday and Blogger wouldn't let it through. :( But let me just now repeat how much I loved this, the stroll through ages and ways of telling time, all so aptly, wonderfully phrased, and the hourglass shape. Lovely altogether.

Ravenblack said...

Shashi: thanks for your thoughtful comments and feedback. :)

turtlememoir: Sorry to hear that blogger crapped out on you. Blogger was a bit laggy for me too and I have lost the comments I made. I've taken to typing longer comments in notepad before I copy and paste them over to the blogger reply window. Thank you for reading and appreciated that you liked it.

Luke Prater said...

What excellent meditation on a moment in time. You capture here everything I could think of saying about 11x6 in time. Amazing, yet arbitrary; aesthetically pleasing, yet gone in an instant and who knows how man will mark time in the future? The hourglass concrete/visual poetry stanza adds another dimension too. Beautifully done

dsnake1 said...

an interesting and profound write. in another hundred years, how will we read time, will it be embedded in our heads?

what was i doing on 11:11 11/11/11? probably in a bus going to work. may have missed the moment, but the demands of everyday life weights more heavily. :)

nice poem, and i think the hourglass strophe is a nice touch. :)

Ravenblack said...

Thanks Luke and dsnake. :)

dsnake: Yes everyday 'life'. :D I was at work at that moment; no one at work much notice this either.

Claudia said...

think after reading this i will never look at a digital clock the same way..so true..time told by sun and shadow is much more romantic..

Ravenblack said...

That it is, Claudia. :)