Now

Now

Now.
Time flies:
Fast over rocks,
Slow over the deeps.
Broadly over big sky vistas;
Through narrow channels in picturesque uplands.
A snapshot alone: the moment;
The ‘now’ isn’t grasped.
It washes past,
Not surfed:
Held.

Note: this is a multiple palindromic poem and, because we like to measure (that is, ascribe numbers to) time, there is also a mathematical structure to this beyond the palindromes. The word count, syllable count and final punctuation for each line each are palindromes.

The word count per line is a palindrome of 1,2,3,4,5,6.

The syllable count per line is a palindrome of 1,2,4,5,8,11.

If you take the differences between consecutive numbers in the latter sequence and then take the difference between the resulting sequence and then the next and the next etc… it resolves to zero in 11 sequences (the same as the number of lines):

1,2,4,5,8,11,8,5,4,2,1
1,2,1,3,3,3,3,1,2,1
1,1,2,0,0,0,2,1,1
0,1,2,0,0,2,1,0
1,1,2,0,2,1,1
0,1,2,2,1,0
1,1,0,1,1
0,1,1,0
1,0,1
1,1
0