POETRY
While We Still Have Life
And fleeting moments of experience
When all the light borrowed by our life
returns to everything that is,
and we say goodbye to all we love
and have to leave behind,
to all we knew and didn’t know,
and all those times
we thought would never end,
those fleeting moments
disappearing even while we knew them,
perhaps we’ll be aware
that we brought something to this world
only we could bring,
a gift from the unseen only we could give,
and in bringing it
to the world
we found meaning.
The eternal
becomes human
for the brief duration of a life,
and travelers of the inner path
might sometimes know
perhaps suddenly, as though
in the corner of an inwardly directed eye,
that the conscious space and silence
in between all of us,
inside us
and always underneath
the surface of the everyday,
the knowing that can’t be said,
the unwritten poetry
blended through the fabric of our world,
is an intelligence
everywhere
throughout the universe
giving rise to flowers
and fleeting moments of experience,
fleeting moments of life
disappearing
even while we know them.
The silent conscious space
inside all life
and every human being,
inexpressible,
generous with its guidance,
woven through the stars,
shaping and informing every moment,
a source of wisdom bringing insight,
and sometimes,
bringing quiet intelligence
to fleeting moments of experience,
like when I walk on Wandsworth’s early morning streets,
where chimes abandoned in a nearby tree
jingle quietly in the early morning air
while seagulls shriek and soar,
and time slips and slides
and glides
and drifts away.
Paul Mulliner 2025
I’m a writer and designer living in London. I write about the fleeting experiences of life, intuition, silence, consciousness, and the long inward journey into the Hidden.
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