Humanist Voices in Verse: Before You Go

This week’s poem is by Steven Zimmerman. He was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1942, graduated from college in 1963, and served in Vietnam with the U. S. Army. He is the father of two and grandfather of four. He began writing poetry in 2006 after retiring from a 37-year career with a Fortune 500 company where he had worked in the field of insurance, risk management and financial services. While searching for more meaning in his life he became intrigued by the advantages of evolutionism over creationism and has been an active member of the American Humanist Association for several years. He enjoys traveling, writing poetry and relaxing while he sojourns to his favorite rotating waterfall in a parallel universe.

If you’d like to contribute original poetry to Humanist Voices in Verse, write to hnn@americanhumanist.org with “Poetry” in the subject line. Please send no more than three poems for consideration per week.

 

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Before You Go

Surplus powerlessness
may be keeping you
from becoming
the corsage of choice.

Before you leave
for the big dance
it will be helpful
to remember
there’s no train back to Eden.

It doesn’t take
heroic exceptionalism
to sojourn –
only willingness.

Waiting for an additional measure
of spirit causality
will likely find you
freighted in the Ship of Fools.

Listening for footsteps
will refocus you
from your results –
ergo, there is no rear view mirror
in the cockpit.

Hear the bloom as it opens,
see the aroma swirl
and inhale the energy
of the Cosmos.

Enjoy the journey.

—Steven Zimmerman