Day’s End

~ Bela Johnson

It’s three o’clock and the day
has brought a bad haircut, heavy
feeling in the air;

The hair will grow
back, the day will not; there is
no repeating what is done,
only trailing memories;

There is no walk upon the beach,
the sun burns boldly now, my skin
as fragile as a dove’s wing in a gale,
and though my feet yearn to wander,
it’s dappled shade I seek;

Looking out, the rain patters veins
of heart-shaped leaves, seeking
outlet in perpetually drenched soil,
the year having seen its share
of extremes;

Days roll forward into time
stretching out, downward
dog-pose kissing expanses of sand
the tide has soaked then abandoned,
shell-bones scattered amidst
neckless strands of kelp.

Photos taken on my recent trip to Whidbey Island, WA. All photos ©Bela Johnson

Published by Bela Johnson

Mystic, gardener, lover of this earth.

19 thoughts on “Day’s End”

  1. This poem reminds me very much of how I think. Going from thinking about my haircut and following a chain to great expanses of time in the future. lol I am also someone who can’t help but think of those wider views, bigger picture sort of thoughts. I like how this poem takes one through the immediate thoughts of the moment to the cacophony of moments and patterns that stretch out into the future. It’s amazing how our eyes can take in time like that. 🙂

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    1. I am glad you enjoyed this poem and could relate to the thought process. I think it (the process) might be termed very right-brained. The rambling, creative drive that leads to discoveries of all sorts. I have more than once tested out at a ridiculously high percentage of right brain vs. left. Makes for interesting interchanges out in the world.😉 From what I’ve read of your own offerings on wp, I suspect yours is a bit more balanced. 🤣 Especially since you also quite incidentally connect what our eyes behold as part of the equation! Something that requires, I believe, a certain knowledge of how the brain interprets what is visually taken in. I love your perceptions and how you express them – always enlightening.

      Thanks for your appreciation and contribution to the dialogue here. Aloha!

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      1. I’m glad you used the word “balanced”, because I’ve always worried that my poetry is far too much on the sciency side and lacked art. lol So balanced is a wonderful compliment, but I think it’s just a different way of expression and maybe doing that well is artistic in itself. I think the most important thing and you demonstrate this well is the ability to think across the great orders of magnitude that span our existence, from the moment to deep well of time that this universe has been around, and from the palm of our hands to the edges of the known universe there are all sorts of wonders to be found. Your mind wanders across this time and space seemingly easily and your ability to express it through poetry also seems both artful and effortless.

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      2. Doing that well IS artistic expression. Exactly. We are all a work in progress, but I hope you keep on writing creatively. You have the gift for it.

        Deep thanks for your kind appraisal of my own work. Ideas come easily as do words. Ordering them to make sense to others is the task. Always has been. ❤️

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  2. This has woven within the shade that is sought. I’d hesitate to say dark, more through a smoky glass, seeing that which is left behind and can never be again with the soft edge of bleached wood and bone upon it. *nods* I like it enormously Bela.

    ‘the sun burns boldly now, my skin
    as fragile as a dove’s wing in a gale,’ – my favourite lines. ❤

    – Esme showing her translucent skin in the morning sun to Bela upon the Cloud x

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    1. It’s so interesting, sister esme, how others inform one’s own ramblings. I love how you tease apart my words to reflect them back through a ‘smoky glass … with the soft edge of bleached wood and bone upon it.’ What a graceful interpretation by which you do me great honor. You are bang-on, of course, while for me, it’s just a continuum, a thread running from my gut perceptions to hands to the page.

      Yes on this aging Northern European skin! Gosh, living in the subtropics after a lifetime of sizzling in the sun every time I had a chance to ‘go to the beach’ really comes home to roost at this time in life. I don’t go to doctors, save the dermatologist to knock back all that sun damage(!!) The upside is no spots or lesions. The downside is that, at least for me, the lasers that do such a marvellous job make my skin baby-new and you know what this kind of sun can do to a baby’s skin(!!) Buckets of sunscreen can only help so much. But I do love it here, the ease of not having scorch my lungs on wood heat all winter or strap on ice cleats when walking outside(!) So I limit my time to early morning bike rides and later evenings gardening and rambling.

      Sending you love and Aloha, dear woman. 💓Thanks as ever for your contributions here.

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  3. I like the way past and present merge into each other in this poem and the trail of memories continue to follow, some moments may sneer at us, future may seem uncertain but looking forward is the only way! Any ending conceals newness in its bosom. 🙂 Lovely pictures Bela. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Aloha, Balroop! You are the third but not the least of my comment returns this morning. It strikes me how fortunate I am to share these offerings with fellow writers who reflect back the most eloquent and thoughtful responses. I love your interpretation of this poem and the way in which you express it. And you are so right about endings containing the seeds of beginnings! I do think this is a mystery to many who are so bound up in fear that they cannot see beyond whatever is in front of them. But nature, as we know, demonstrates this renewal daily. Nothing dies that is not reborn in some form.

      Enjoy the rest of your day! And many thanks. ❤

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    1. Yes, Val, as it continues. We’ve been here for over thirteen years now and when we arrived, Kohala was in the midst of nine years of drought. We caught the tail end of that. For the past four years or so, it’s been more balanced, more rains have graced our region. But this past year has been so, so wet that the yards are boggy. No matter we get days such as this one where the sun shines brilliantly and the breezes pick up. The rains come back too soon for the ground to dry out to receive yet more water. It’s remarkable to witness the differences, too, as just yesterday driving to Kona, there are areas that are bone dry and fire hazards. If we could but redistribute!

      Have a lovely day, Val, wherever this finds you! Aloha ❤

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  5. I think we woman have had many of those bad hair days, worse when its a bad hair cut though. I have had a few of them over the years!…
    So pleased that your walk and looking at the moment put new thoughts into your mind.. I so love your photo perspectives Bela… Showing calming ocean, stormy skies and the dead drift wood, while living trees stand proud …. ALL showing us the abundance natures give us from dawn till dusk..
    Puts everything else into perspective.. ❤ ❤ Loved reading Bela.

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  6. Loved the poem, Bela. (Reading comments, I too am more right-brained and follow your thinking easily. 🙂 ) Also fun to see more pics of my old stomping grounds. (Countless ferry boat rides to and from Whidbey, or across the Deception Pass bridge.) Enjoyed this!

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      1. Which part of the island is your friend on? My cousin lives at the north end. And another relative had a cabin near Freeland (more south). Dave’s late aunt lived there too, plus an old classmate. No doubt it’s a lot more populated now than it was when I was young….

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