Poem Without Ends

One cannot take the beginning out of the air
saying 'It is the time: the hour is here.'
The process is continuous as wind,
the bird observed, not rising, but in flight,
unrealized, in motion in the mind.

The end of everything is similar, never
actually happening, but always over.
The agony, the bent head, only tell
that already in the heart the innocent evening
is thick with all the ferment of farewell.

Alastair Reid