The Reckoning – in life and in poetry
We’ve now been back from our annual Agios Nikolaos pilgrimage for a week longer than we were there for. That’s always a sad realisation, and one that, in me, evokes feelings of rebellion and anger at how living has been formed by capital and war and drudge. Will there be a reckoning for that 1% who make the 99%’s lives miserable? I don’t know, and I have crises of faith and confidence every day. But does that mean I’ve lost my appetitie for living? No. I want to grab every last bit of it, and live forever.
The Reckoning
When the reckoning comes,
As it must, whatever belief
System we follow, how will
We be judged by posterity,
History, the universe, or a
Spurious god? On our
Decisions and actions,
On our thought, our
Independence, our loving?
Our ability to survive even
Unintended betrayals, or
Our strength to betray?
The scales will waver
Every time, incapable
Of making any judgement,
Not even on the meaning
Of life, when the sense
Of it is the living of it,
And the distillation of
Joy from every miserable
Drop of it.
R 22/07/2025 14:10 Norwich Library
Larry Dietz
30th July 2025 at 18:48Alas, it is hard to think about reckoning as the torrent of ‘wrongs’ becomes a tsunami!