Better Than We Are
John Jessup Kennan 1953 (Pomona)
When the details all disintegrate
Into generalities
A thick gray fog envelops
A hundred million stars
A hundred thousand days may blend
Into Infinity
Maybe then we'll see
We're better than we are
Charts and graphs and bleeping lights
Provide security
They comfort when we are convinced
We're like somebody else then
When restless degeneration
Finds the eyes of wounded enemies
Maybe then I'll see
I'm better than I am
'Cause the lines don't always meet up
On the charts or in the graphs
Memories don't always match
The faces in the photographs
If we change the path we're traveling
We change the course of stars
Maybe then we'll see
We can be just who we are
When the days we've all been given
Devolve into the years
In infinitesimal seconds
Life will flash before the eyes
Grinding for a living
Fending off the fears
The reckoning of burdens
Blinds the flashing of our lives
We can peer into the heavens
Into the stratospheres
Not a vague Someday or Somewhere
No distant vagaries
The Creator is with you and me
In the Now, and in the Here
Is that he is, recreates me
Into the best me I can be
'Cause the lines don't always meet up
On the charts or in the graphs
Memories don't always match
The faces in the photographs
If we change the path we're traveling
We change the course of stars
Maybe then we'll see
We can be just who we are
Eternity is detailed
In a solitary day
The details of the heavens
Written in our lives
Every day is detailed
A hundred thousand ways
The passions of creators
Detailed in our eyes
When eternity regenerates
Momentary finite minute ways
When skies openly reveal
Each solitary star
When all the years we're given
Devolve into a day
May the moments flash inside us
The best Us that we are
'Cause the lines don't always meet up
On the charts or in the graphs
Memories don't always match
The faces in the photographs
If we change the path we're traveling
We change the course of stars
Maybe then we'll see
We can be just who we are
So here's to the philosophers
To the harbingers of doubt
Here's to quantum physicists
To their graphs and to their charts
Here's a prayer that they may someday
Figure it all out
May they find their lives are detailed
In the twinkling of a heart
If patience is a virtue
To the restless discontent
Always keep your shoes clean
Be careful where you walk
Love your children, love your parents,
Love your neighbors, love your pets
Remember where we are, my friends
We're always on the clock
'Cause the lines don't always meet up
On the charts or in the graphs
Memories don't always match
The faces in the photographs
If we change the path we're traveling
We change the course of stars
Maybe then we'll see
We can be just who we are
© John Kennan 6-16-18
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Submitted by rankstranger7 on May 24, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:38 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | xaxbxcCd xcxxeacx FGHGIBCD ejxkijlm laxacxcc FGHGIBCD nolmnpqk apxdeoxd FGHGIBCD qrxxornx xxxxxxxx FGHGIBCD e |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,673 |
Words | 500 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 1 |
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"Better Than We Are" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/100799/better-than-we-are>.
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