Born in Poseidon

Born in Poseidon

“Tomorrow is only found in the

calendar of fools.”--Og Mandino.

Unlike a tree, man does not create

an annual ring to commemorate

the planet’s axial plunge through

solstice & space;

so we float along each moment,

trying to recall the past by snapping pictures,

cataloging memories, keeping diaries,

& writing poetry, while being conditioned

to plan for a future both unresolved

& untouchable, because only the actual

moment is the custodian of our heartbeat

& breath; it is our gift from the gods, 

our legacy from history, and we call it

the present;

but absurdly the world hums all around us

and Calendars push their way into our sphere,

without permission, demanding itineraries,

& if we feel nauseous or vertigo from riding

the calendar-cycles, it becomes much like

chiding my three year old granddaughter

for doing something she shouldn’t--

she just looks up & smiles, saying,

“But Pop, that’s just how I do it.”--

how it’s always been done, creating calendars

from lunar or solar cycles, forcing us to keep

track, to get a grasp on time, “The only thing,”

said Seneca,”given in equal measure to all men”.

Starting with Time itself;

did you know that there are

31 trillion seconds in a year,

525,600 minutes,

& 8,766 hours, or that

1961 can be read upside down

& that will not happen again until

6009, or that the June Geminis

were born during the Greek

month of Poseidon?

Looking into the history of calendars

is like trying to keep track of, or to understand

the history of languages, with all the cultural

& religious cornerstones & determinants.

Making sense out of calendars is not an easy

task, studying the Sumarian, Mayan, Greek, & Roman

ones, lunar or solar or both--many based on

starting dates that have nothing to do with

the birth of Christ;

We are informed that this is the year 2013, 

using the Anno Domini system, calculating

the passage of time as BC & AD, now BCE,

but actually more exactly based on the

Gregorian calendar developed in 1582,

which was a reformation of the Julian Calendar--

as that particular Caesar changed the former

Roman calendar from 10 months & 304 days

to the 365.25 days we can recognize/relate to,

& those Vikings simplified things significantly

by having only two seasons;

Summer--May through September

Winter--October through April. 

I mean even though it is 2013 for most of us,

on the Armenian calendar it is 1464,

on the Hebrew it is 5773,

on the Chinese it is 4709,

on the Buddhist it is 2557,

& on the Byzantine it is 7522.

All I really know is that at some point

you can lose track of days, & simply

be aware of the sun & moon, day & night;

like a man lost & wandering in the desert,

with no timepiece, no calendar--just

being aware of those prominent cycles

of hunger, sleep, & waste elimination--

& this state of blissful ignorance is called

Retirement. 

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

Would you like to hear the author read this Calendar poem to you?