Once is Never Enough
I’ve heard it said more than once,
from more than one mouth or pen,
that once is never enough,
which is a truism true enough,
If you are talking chocolate shakes,
walks in the springing forest,
Mozart’s 40th Symphony,
winding the clock before coffee,
or laying satisfied and spent
in the late afternoon.
Once may never seem enough.
But some contestants deserve the title
of never bearing even one repetition,
because unrepeatable is what makes them
what they are and remain.
Never again is their stubborn declaration,
unmatched by weakening do-overs.
They stand unrivaled, wearing the garland,
always outstretching the competition.
But there is another list
of the once-onlys, the rarities,
floating over and above time,
that are not determined in any way
by perspective, wanting, or waiting.
These are the one-time-by-design,
most distinguished things
made so by being none other than once:
The azure, crystalline clarity
marking everything that came before
and would after, this great divide.
Getting born into this body
the one time, mind you,
and then getting out of it, too,
the cry the first time
the whisper the second,
both one time, because any more
would not only be impossible,
but withdraw wonder by degrees.
Some parts of this one story
deserve to stand alone,
unrepeated, unparalleled, unedited.
Here is to you, the once only thing,
which stays that way,
can’t not be that way,
revealing every fearsome limit,
among winsome love,
and deepest admiration.
(Timothy Carson, February 2024)
vitalwholeness 