Poetry – When I take all the time in the world.

When I take all the time in the world.

This is a poem written by my best friend Pete Smith. He wrote it in 1973 straight out on to a scrap of paper in front of me – ready formed. Not a word has been changed or revised. It was not struggled over and there was not the slightest hesitation.

I read it with amazement.

Pete told me that it had been banging around in his head for some time.

I think it is wonderfully thought provoking and used it as the preface to my first book that I completed that year – 1973.

When I take all the time in the world.

When I take all the time in the world

Me, you and it are all one,

time agoes roundabout whirls

Along distances never run.

 

If I think at the speed of light in my brain

And if my thoughts carry any weight

They’ll have infinite mass and now and again

I’ll be able to speak with some gravity

Which won’t be dependent on brevity

‘Cos infinite’s infinite infinity

And what about now? When?

Now – then.

 

The mono-dimension

Mu-meson dilation

Of infinite extension

Red-shift relation

That memory retention

Is fade out dependention

One way ticket down entropy’s gangway.

 

When I take all the time in the world

And think it all in a second

Has been and will be

Old man and baby

In coracle hairy

Of knowledge and mystery

The facts and fantasy

Of matter and energy

And Einstein’s light

All might

Be the same

But for name

In the rhyme

Of old tyme

Dancing

When I take all the time in the world.

Pete Smith 1973

 

I love this poem and I miss my mate Pete who is the other side of the world!