In this poem, I reflect on how we are so often in a rush to reach our destination that we miss the chance encounters and unexpected pleasures of the moments in between.
Life in Transit - Part 1
A poem by Wayne Visser
Life is lived in the in-between In transit Between coming and going Between staying and moving on Between here and there And what we call home What we call settled or contented Is merely a resting place A station for refuelling A nexus for re-connecting A junction for changing direction The bus stops and train stations The airports and traffic lights of our life Are nodes linking us to our past And windows peering into our future They are choice matrixes And platforms of destiny At life’s stopping points We bump into others and smile (Or curse silently under our breath) We pause long enough to reflect To mull on our confusion And share moments of clarity So let us not be so impatient to leave To wish we were somewhere else Because life’s most unexpected surprises Happen in the in-between In the moments of passing touch And the tangled knots of transition Between boredom and panic In the zone of chance When the landscape is not rushing by And love (the greatest surprise of all) Is only to be found where paths cross And journeys are re-routed Where our most fixed plans change And new destinations are contemplated Love is seldom found at high speed When we are looking for obvious landmarks But rather when we are standing still enough To notice subtle shifts in moods and patterns.
Source
From Life in Transit: Favourite Travel and Tribute Poems