I wrote this poem exactly 17 years ago today. It was several months after the excitement of working on NBC’s seaQuest had given way to some different kinds of fun for Beth and me, but about 18 months before we surprised ourselves and everyone we knew by moving to California. This was written in May (always a favorite time of year), and much to my delight, those days were mostly spent handling very fun freelance production assignments (for example, shooting with Randy Baker for NASCAR), rewriting a screenplay for a futuristic thriller, and writing, editing and submitting poetry to top literary publications.
by Roger Darnell
when the time arrives, unlike now,
when my fortune’s not been so well respected,
my prospects not received such assurances?
how shall I plan to use it
more wisely than this day has seen,
knowing today’s plan was fashioned
by as good a command
as this will could muster?
in the event tomorrow may never come,
the land I’ve sought not arise
to meet hemispheres with my vision
after this day, I’d not be so surprised
as I’d have been so many years ago.
I’d thought I could do it all at once,
and keep doing till the world’s
wide-openness was full with my labours,
that a piece much bigger than myself
would be forged to testify evermore
the mighty little man.
today stood bare my now thirty years,
fondling the craft of my fate and
knowing it may grow and that it may
die.
I’ve loved all I’ve done too much
to think of it more old, more dead.
nature and its ways reigning,
I can only behold what is,
and the surest grasp for
the richest prize
seizes my love. The bridge holds.
(Copyright 2013 Roger Darnell, All Rights Reserved.)
