The Hourglass

This poem comments on the fact that time is fleeting and how we spend it is up to us. It questions what we will be left with and what we'll be remembered for when our time is up.

 

We have a possession, a gift

But we’re losing it, 

every second it’s wasting away 

We take for granted what time we have

squander it with ways to let it pass.

We give our time to idle things

making no difference in our lives

a finite resource that’s slipping through our fingers

Dripping down an hourglass as we speak, 

grains falling one by one

Rustling against each other 

as it falls down the infinite abyss of time.

 

When we’re young, we wish to be older. 

time goes on, 

we forget to appreciate, 

To relish each moment,

each detail. 

we’ll age and regret our times misspent 

reliving the few moments appreciated most.

 

Time is relative, some might say,

but in the end, 

our days have been numbered

And one day we’ll be out of 

our precious, relative time.

 

When our final moments come, 

when every short fleeting breath could be our last, 

we’ll wonder if we made the most of our lives,

made a difference to the ones around us,

Will anyone remember us in the years that we will never see?

 

We are just a speck of dust in this universe,

in the infinite timeline of life’s history 

it always keeps moving forward. 

indifferent to the events, 

never slowing down, never speeding up.

continues to push us forward each second, 

every minute spent is gone forever, 

never coming back.

 

Time moves forward, 

never looking behind.

one moment never seen again.

​

I want to look back on my final moments 

and be proud of what I've done, 

what I’ve experienced 

because life is too short to be spent recklessly. 

Now, I don’t know if my final moments are tomorrow, 

next year, 

or 50 years away

and I don’t know if I’ll make any difference in the world 

with the words I say, 

but I do know I want to take in 

and savor each morning rain, 

each bird that flies, 

each grain of sand on a windy beach at sunrise.

I want to remember every person I meet, 

and every day I spend. 

 

Each moment I have could be my last 

and I don’t intend to have many regrets

on my deathbed when I pass. 

Because the last shadow, 

the last ripple you make in the stream of time 

is how people remember you. 

 

A reputation is all that will remain of who you were 

and what you stood for. 

So keep it, maintain it, and tweak it while you can. 

It’s the only thing you’ll keep forever 

because time runs out, 

moments fade, 

and lives will pass, 

but as they say: 

a reputation is all a man has.