Any Time Spent

Any time spent
Not making babies.
Or not making money.

Any time spent
Not tilling the soil.
Or not dancing the floor.

Any time spent
Not watching the sunset.
Or watching the sunset.

Any time spent
Not being outraged.
Or being outraged.

Any time spent
Being forced to choose.
Or regretting your choice.

Any time spent
Having no choice.
Or lamenting your fate.

Any time spent
Going on living.
Or giving up.

SAGE Magazine , 17 February 2025

Notes: What is wasted time? It’s any time spent doing fruitless or worthless things, or not doing fruitful and worthy things. But what are those? Each tercet contemplates a different angle on what’s worth doing or contemplating. The first suggests what matters is production: babies and money. The second suggests (Protestant) ethics: working hard and dancing (in my mind, but not explicit in the poem, according to the traditional song Simple Gifts: “by turning, turning we come down right”). The third suggests gratitude and appreciation of beauty; but then backtracks, wondering if that’s a waste because it violates the first and second. The fourth suggests moral engagement and outrage is important, but then suggests mere outrage is unproductive. The fifth and sixth go together, pondering categories of choice, because the whole issue of How To Spend One’s Time presumes one has some degree of choice. The last tercet abstracts to the highest level. It was provoked by reading an article in the NYT about a climate activist who committed suicide but his loved ones and colleagues did not give up.

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