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Pause For Poetry:
Michael Hawkes /35

Circular Time

A poem by Michael Hawkes

October 21, 2021

The trees don’t shed their leaves in fear,
Each falling leaf is not a tear
But nourishment to feed the ground
Until the spring comes back around,
When budding leaves will re-appear.

The birds do not migrate in dread,
In gathered swarms they look ahead
Along the routes ancestors flew
As all their kind is wont to do
To reach the home whence they were bred.

The bears don’t hibernate in shame,
But sleep ‘til berries come again;
Come winters’ fall they build a den
And save themselves a lot of strain
By waiting warm and snug ’til then.

The world does not revolve alone,
Is not a single sling shot stone;
It brings the moon to guide the way
While spinning every night and day
In the timeless orbit of its home.

The course of life is not a line,
Made by a one-way sharpened shaft;
It has a spark of the divine,
The way though serpentine,
Completes the circularity of time
And is connected fore and aft.

Our sense of time is misconceived
When progress is indeed believed;
In truth the dance is round a ring
With myriad other living things
Preceding and continuing.

6/10/21 –  Hawkes


POETRY READING AT CAS ON OCTOBER 30

logo Centre des arts de StansteadThe Centre des arts de Stanstead is pleased to present a poetry reading in English with Gillian Sze and Greg Santos taking place Saturday, October 30 at 4 pm on Zoom. They will both read alternately during an hour-long event with host Shelley Pomerance. To join the event click on the Zoom link.


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Michael Hawkes - WestmountMag.ca

Michael Hawkes is an 80-year-old survivor of all the world’s wars. He learned (and loved to rhyme) by torturing the hymns he had to sing at school. A retired West Coast fisherman living in Montreal since 2013, he is an unschooled Grandpa Moses writing an average of five poems every week.


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