Sunday, August 27, 2023 “A Hastening Countdown from Infinity” by George Grace
Birth death graduation
call it this moment or that
no matter,
chose something that had nothing or everything
plotted within the overlapping Venn circles of
your life’s friendships, endeavors,
disappointments, loves.From that point, count backwards or forwards
whatever at that moment proves more useful
to locate that next point,
then divide that
and divide it yet again.
Choose an end point
(any arbitrary choice as sound or absurd as any other)
and march back to the oblivion of zero,
or toward the other imagined end’s
infinity of entropic hurdles and passages.
In the end, it will be the journey
and just the journey.
Devoid of any destination other than a stopping point,
chosen by, or for, you
a place to rest, reflect, recharge
the journey will continue to infinity
in both directions,
one burned at your behest,
and the one you chose to travel
for just a while longer,
or no longer at all.
About the Poet
George Grace is a Buffalo-based poet, visual artist, playwright, fiction writer, and memoirist. He is the author of three full-length collections of poetry: “American Stonehenge and Other Poems”(Circleformance Press, 2002), “Night Wanes, Dawn” (Writer’s Den Press, 2012), and his most recent, “A Hastening Countdown from Infinity” (LitGarden Writers, 2023) in which this is the title poem. He is also the author of “Steeling America: A Poetic Memoir of Lackawanna’s Bethlehem Steel Plant” published in 2014 by The Writer’s Den Press.
Grace served four terms as president of the Buffalo Society of Artists, and has exhibited his award-winning work locally and nationally. He has taught workshops for Writers-in-Education programs and in Attica and Collins Correctional Facilities, and has guest lectured at Villa Maria College, City Honors High School, and SUNY Buffalo State University.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.