By Noel A. Ihebuzor and Susan L. Daniels
the sound of time
being kept
but never held
compare this to the heart
beating, ticking
bleeping, never sleeping
yet not keeping time
just hugging and holding scents
and traces from its irreversible passage
if we are keeping time
it should be measured
in pulses never wound
but still driving days
in matched rhythms
rhythmic pulsations
pounding in sync to our
logics and metres, fixed and elastic
always beating, heaving, trembling,
ever flowing, fluid but always alive,
even when we no longer are
yes, endless
in the pulse
we match, but briefly.
what drives us
in metered language
these words a drum
reflecting
a greater syncopation
we march to match
to catch that syncopation
moving our soles
and souls along trails
at once linear and at twice
circular, always forward
and occasionally recursive
***Another spontaneous poetic conversation from my comments. As always, it is a pleasure to write with Noel, whose words are in regular text here, and I am italicized.
Susan Daniels Poetry 
always fun “duelling” with words with Susan. Something in the way she writes provokes this!
🙂 likewise, Noel–you are an inspiration.
Hahaha–no idea what happened with my tags there–you were all over the place. Oh–I must have clicked “apply all” 🙂
You both do this so well…loving the new blog look too
Thanks, sis! Zoe’s eyes will be back peeking at us 12/26 😉
Liking this a bunch Susan! The duelling seems to ignite each stanza
Thanks, Audrey. It is so much fun to write with Noel, I am not sure it should be legal 😉
This is great stuff – subject, language, ‘tempo’. Promiscuous but (some clever word starting with P !! Damn – brain freeze….)
🙂 thanks, Mike! These poetic conversations are a joy to create… Go ‘head, call me a poet-tramp. Know you want to…
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” – Albert Einstein
Excellent poem Susan. 🙂
Thanks, Charlie! Could not have done this without Noel 🙂
🙂
I’m back…
Aw–that is a HUGE compliment. Thank you!
You’re welcome.
What I meant…was that I’m back and ready to read and blog again. I’m been missing in action. I don’t know if you noticed.
I DID! You were missed. But, having just started following you, I was not sure how often you blogged… So I was waiting.
As for the above–I always assume any lines written by Noel are worth a second look 😉
My next blog will be posted next Monday. 🙂
great–I shall look for it!
🙂
Oh, and I see here I am NOT following you and thought I was (?)
Problem easily fixed…
🙂
tick tock you guys rock!
Love the rhythm..
like the festive theme Susan
Audra–thank you! I love playing with syncopation (which is one of my favorite words–just the sound stretched out is cool syn ko paaaaaaaay shun). It’s slithery.
Off the serpentine and onto the holiday theme–I am glad you like it. Not used to having all my sidebar stuff scrolled along the bottom, but I can live with that for a week or two, just to get in the spirit 😉
slithery and fun to say.
I don’t get into the holiday spirit til the 14th or so. I am a bah humbug
nah–you are not a bah humbug. You just don’t have a 6-year-old asking you every 5 minutes how long it is until Christmas ***now***
that is all the fun.. the kids 🙂
and my oldest comes home on the 13th for a month(yay) so we wait as a tradition to get the festivities going for her birthday which is shortly after that. Really looking forward to it this year
That will get you in the spirit, or at least you will have a blast with your girls–which is the important thing 😉
yup..smile
(we’ll probably want to kill each other by the 26th) haaa house full of hormones again
ohhhhh–don’t get me started on synchronizing cycles. What part of God or mother nature, depending on where you lean spiritually, thought it would be fun to synchronize the cycles of a premenopausal woman and her tween???? Not funny, God. Not funny.
laughing.. my hubs better run
Nothing like a wonderful collaboration – and this certainly is!
Thanks, Sheila–really like writing with Noel.
Another wonderful duet. This is great 🙂
Thanks, Celestine!