Beyond Remembering Quotes

“Where the Moment Is”

I forget whether I ever loved you
in the past - when you enter the room
your climate is the mood
of living, the hinge of now,
in time the present tense.
Certainly you are the world
I am not done with
until I dispense with words -
Neutral as nature: something I say
will flash back like light
or shadow: you wait and become
a stranger I've not met
or hated or slept with.
The action begins quickly
word, inflection, reaction fall
into his place the moment is;
sometimes I can pre-determine you,
and taste you
becoming in my mouth,
a blank map to explore
in silence, a thought gone out
of me to make you be or say -
Eventually you back against
a wall and I or we may
suddenly find our mouths screaming
in anger or laughter
without meaning - and wince.
But the damned trouble and after
my existence - in my absence
you expect or mourn without a sound.”
― Al Purdy, Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy

“— the loss of love
that comes to mean more
than the love itself
and how explain that?
— a still pool in the forest
that has ceased to reflect anything
except the past

from “Listening to Myself”
― Al Purdy, Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy

“I forget whether I ever loved you
in the past—when you enter the room
your climate is the mood
of living, the hinge of now,
in time the present tense.
Certainly you are the world
I am not done with,
until I dispense with words—
Yet neutral: something I say
will flash back like light
or shadow; you wait
to be a stranger I’ve not met
or fondled or slept with.

from “Where the Moment Is”
― Al Purdy, Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy