Part of the prompts for today’s OctPoWriMo includes: “Have you ever had a moment in time that you wished you could stop and live in? Have you ever wished you could control time even if for just a little while? What would you do? What moment would you make last longer? Write about time and what you would do if you were in control of it. Today you get to be a Time Lord!”

One of the suggested forms is Loop Poetry is a poetry form created by Hellon. There are no restrictions on the number of stanzas nor on the syllable count for each line. In each stanza, the last word of the first line becomes the first word of line two, last word of line 2 becomes the first word of line 3, last word of line 3 becomes the first word of line 4. This is followed for each stanza. The rhyme scheme is abcb.

The first poem is the loop poem and the second, the one about wanting to make time stand still, follows it.

 

in the time of work

work time is measured

measured by purpose

purpose not treasured

*

appointments are scheduled

scheduled by quarter hours

hours for appointments

appointments not ours

*

meetings galore, hearings crunched in

in relentless marching outlook blocks

blocks solid with busy-ness

busy-ness of purpose, driven by clocks

*

lunchtime is rushed, hearings demand

demand to … be heard. mad hares rush

rush to the hearing, only to wait

wait, then listen until brain turns to mush

*

no time for vacation  no time for days off

off means you need to find coverage for you

you when returned face the accumulated paperwork

paperwork that has bred like rats on the shelf

*

documentation report preparation

preparation of documents for files not eyes

eyes mostly skim carefully prepared reports

reports on the notes of professional spies

*

time for annual review, where you’re fed a view

view of the good, bad, and ugly of you,

you sit there and smile and you think all the while

while i’ve been here 25 years, only the supervisor is new

*

all those years have gone by, now the blink of an eye

eye now watering with happiness and relief

relief no more maulings, threatenings, the time grind

grind that didn’t make me quit. Time for disbelief.

*

in the time of retirement

retirement frees the constriction of time

time does its thing. i do mine.

sometimes we do lunch, and that’s fine.

*

* * *

wake, eyes closed, soft breath

light resting on my eyelids

i rise whenever