No time do I have for sadness,
No time for fear,
No time for what was,
No time for what should have been,
No time for what could have been,
Its all I can do to handle today,
To prepare for tomorrow,
To do better,
Be better than I was yesterday.
Anything else diminishes me.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Fleeting…Time escapes
Roses bloom then die…To late
Gone is their fragrance
Another chance has been missed
Ever fewer lay ahead
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Beauty surrounds,
If we only take time to observe.
Caught in the trap of modernity,
Should we not exalt these wonders,
For the sanctity of nature,
Is most breathtaking to behold.
Our towering buildings, bridges, fountains, sculptures,
All the great works of the ages do not compare.
Man’s achievements are but specks,
Mere blemishes woven into this worldly fabric.
The Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the giant redwoods,
the mighty Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains,
Overshadow anything man’s simple mind could envision.
Yet through our mortal determination
We destroy the masterpiece that sustains us.
Let us slow down…
Take a moment to appreciate what surrounds us
Before we further damage this gift we have been given
Leaving nothing but ugliness and regret
To those that will follow.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Glean what truth you can
From this haggard earthly soul
Worn by life’s torment
For mortal time is finite
By natures perfect design
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
With each and every passing year,
I realize I know less than I knew before.
The truths I held at once so dear,
Have up and left and run for the door.
~~
Things they change seeming obscure,
Not so plain as they used to be.
So much I see I at once abhor,
Closing my eyes in hopes I won’t see.
~~
Music and film I have lived to watch change,
Profane and obscene for what reason unknown.
I would go back in time if time be rearranged,
Oh how I wish that time would not have flown.
~~
Maybe this is a sign of age on the march,
Passed from progenitor to progeny alas.
Opinions unheeded as they drift beneath the arch,
Change will not stop as I peer through the glass.
~~
My guess is that I’ll either learn to live or ignore,
As my parents and their parent have done.
The cycle won’t change of this I am sure,
I suppose time and youth, they have won.
~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~
Time, something finite
Taken for granted by all
‘Till late in one’s life
Then time is held as treasure
More precious than solid gold
~~D. R. DiFrancesco ~~
Peering through the haze of a looking glass,
Scrutinizing the life I watch rush past.
~
Questioning choices is easy in hindsight,
Without benefit of knowing what’s wrong or what’s right.
~
The consequence of actions whether good or bad,
Must be accepted since thats all that we had.
~
Shy of vision to see into the future,
We’re left to chance of nature and nurture.
~
Through failure and success our horizons expand,
Experience alone not parlor tricks or slight-of-hand.
~
Moulds who we are for better or worse,
In this life that we live that at best is quite terse.
~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~
Time, is it something we are given or something we keep?
We can not hold it,
We can not prolong it no matter how hard we try.
So many have tried and failed.
Kings in the belief they were gods,
Destined to live forever,
Believing they were divinely chosen,
But to no avail life slipped away from them.
The sands of time drizzled from between their gold adorned fingers,
Leaving their hearts empty and their hands cold,
This is as it always has been and always will be.
Our science can only sustain the life left in us,
When we are called to pass no method of man can save us.
Should we not then cherish the hours we spend in this world,
Accepting them as a gift to be received gratefully?
Nothing on this earth is forever.
We cannot keep time,
It was not given to us to be kept.
It was given instead to be enjoyed,
Lived to the fullest in harmony with our fellow transients.
Who like us will run out of the gift of time, some day, some hour,
Only to join our ancestors in eternity.
~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~
Sullied winds chatter chimes lashed to greyed beams
Warped and splitting with age, appear none too long for this world
With each ring an angel must surely get their wings
As remuneration for a melody so heavenly revealed
~~
Steps crippled, squeal as mice in traps are bound to do
Bowing under the burden of the weary traveler
Fortitude ingrained, revives the weakened conscripts
Whose preparation has made them cordial adversaries
~~
Tawny hinges weathered by sun, beaten by the wind cry in pain
Remorse etched into their hammered finish confesses their age
Chagrined by subjugation, the door slams
Announcing defeat to it’s audience of none
~~
Dark but for dust pirouetting through muted shafts of light
Stirred by shuffling boots, tattered and worn thin by extended employ
Creaking under foot, floorboards rebel in unison with their owner
Shrunken and contorted from the weight of existence
~~
Ping of coils break the stagnant silence of the vessel
Sagging lumpy seat replaces a once firm cushion
A quiet ah, escapes from the lungs in expiration
Sense of relief but for the strain of fabric
~~
Cracking joints echo of broken glass in freefall
Legs wobble by exhausted mortise and tenon
Laden with rings, table balances precariously in an uncomfortable dance
Unsteady and unsure, time has reaped it’s revenge
~~
Tired well beyond youth, mortality returns from holiday
Waiting to reveal what lay interred beyond these walls
Neither refinish nor repair prolong to eternity
Only temporary and finite are the workings of men
~~
Man conspires with the dwelling in cosmic ways
Each subject to the ravages of the lifetime moment
Materially morphing into a shell of the original creation
Inevitably conceding to nature’s crowing fate
~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~
By D. R. DiFrancesco
~~~~~~
Black hair gone thin and gray
Creases like dry riverbeds map the landscape
Winding effortlessly south
Either due to age or gravity or both
Dark olive skin, soft tautness lost to the years
Tired eyes struggle to catch the light of day
Once clear as crystals now foggy and uncertain
Reminiscent of the mist that envelops San Diego Bay
Memories of youthful virility invoked smiles and stories
Tales etched with vivid language
Language and reference not correct in todays world
Friends and acquaintances identified by race, creed and color
Shocked and amazed erupting in uncomfortable laughter
A likely product of the prejudice thrown at your feet
First breath drawn at the turn of the last century
Born of a race not so easily accepted
Unkind names and slurs labeling an entire lineage
Times had changed leaving you behind
Floundering as if in seizure
Living in an era that was foreign
Still there was no shame, no offense or ill intention
No defense levied for your words and actions
None was needed, none was desired
Age and time granted societal clemency
Few were left who lived the history
Fewer still survive to remember
Relegation to the page is approaching with haste
Embrace them while the opportunity affords
Cherish the time shared and knowledge imparted
Passing it down to the generations that follow
Dom DiFrancesco 