What time is it?
The weight of time
Dear friends,
The title a book has while it’s being written is not necessarily the title under which it’s published. Pride and Prejudice was called First Impressions for a while. There are many other similar examples: William Golding wrote what we know as Lord of the Flies as Strangers from Within.
There is the title that we have for something while it’s emerging. And then there is the title for something in its final form. Makes sense for books. Makes sense for life, too, I think.
Reading through all of the work of Emily Dickinson, I was struck by her interest in time. “The Past is such a curious Creature,” she writes, just one of many poems about time. “Finite infinity,” she also writes. And so it goes.
At public readings over the last few years, I’ve asked people what time it is. 7pm is often the answer. But then I like to ask it again. What time is it? Someone’s birthday. An anniversary. An agonising wait. I’m older than my older brother now. Time is doing all kinds of things at one time. For a year, while the new book (it’s released with the title Love Between Men) was being written, I called it The Weight of Time, after I asked a physics-intelligent friend to help me find a term that describes how pure time is affected by gravity, circumstance, story and orbit.
There’s a poem below about this very thing. But first, this week’s question: What time is it?
For you, I mean. Right now. Today. Or this week. Or this month. Or 2026. You can write a paragraph, a sentence, or a poem. I’ll look forward to hearing what gravity is doing to infinity in your orbit today.
The Weight of Time What time is it? the leader asked. My birthday, one guy said. The lads all clapped. They were gathered in their usual room — carpeted and grey — at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Most didn’t know each other from the outside world, though one recognised the new guy from an app. Ninety minutes of guidance, silence, interruptions. Bringing up their pasts in a circle made of strangers. 1993 was a terrible year for me, an old guy said. I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t born, came a reply. The speaker got annoyed, but the young guy said, you’ve had your time — my generation’s being destroyed. They left differently each week. Sometimes lighter, sometimes angrier and more clear. Welcoming a newbie, a longtime member said, You’ll soon feel part of us — truth’s spoken here. Then start, the leader said.
Pádraig Ó Tuama. From the forthcoming Love Between Men. Preorders are a form of love!
I’ll see you in the comments, friends.
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Poetry in the World
A list of my events: Online and in the U.S. (Santa Fe, NM; Frenchtown, NJ; Hickory, NC; Cambridge and Stockbridge, MA) and England (London, Kettering)
Join me in celebrating the launch of my new collection, Love Between Men, hosted by St. Martin–in-the-Fields Church, beginning at 6 p.m. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
August 27–30, Kettering, England
I’m absolutely delighted to be returning to this year’s Greenbelt Festival, a gathering of arts, activism, and belief in England. (For registration info, click on the date heading.)
I’ll be leading evening worship alongside Nadia Bolz-Weber and Doug Gay as part of the Festival of Preaching, beginning at 5:30 p.m. GMT. (For registration info, click on the date heading.)
October 1, Frenchtown, New Jersey
Join me at Frenchtown Bookshop for a conversation and book signing, beginning at 6:30 p.m. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
October 11, Hickory, North Carolina
Join violinist and fiddle player Liam Bailey and myself for an afternoon of music and poetry at Grace Chapel, beginning at 3 p.m. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
I’m leading a virtual craft intensive on poetry and desire through Poets House, beginning at 6 p.m. ET. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
I’m delighted to be joining Ellen Bass’s wonderful Living Room Craft Talks Series for a discussion of the poetry of eros, beginning at 12 p.m. ET. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
November 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts
I’ll be reading alongside Susan Stewart as part of the Blacksmith House Poetry Series, beginning at 8 p.m. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
I’m leading a virtual course on lyric address through Arvon, beginning at 7 p.m. GMT. (For registration info, click on the date heading.)
December 18–20, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
I’m leading a retreat on poetry and prayer at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
Michelle Penn and I will be reading together in a virtual event with Café Writers, beginning at 7:30 p.m. GMT. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
May 24–29, Collegeville, Minnesota
I’ll be returning to the Collegeville Institute to lead a workshop on poetry and prayer; applications are open through the 13th of December. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
What time is it? It is time
to remember that I am but a wrinkle
in the tarp of time.
For a time, an impression of my presence is made visible,
like the dent in a freshly made bed
where I once sat on the edge
to put on my shoes,
like dirt that still clings
to shoes I once wore before
I walked through the door and
was no more.
Time is what keeps everything
from happening all at once.
I am not happening all at once.
I am happening now
until I become what once happened. Time is reputedly precious.
So am I.
So are you.
For now.
-Dwight Lee Wolter
I’m in pre-boy time, the minutes or hours before my son wakes up and the day will continue at a different speed.
I’m in AD time (After Divorce).
I’m in the Venn diagram years, when my son and his great grandmother are alive on earth at the same time, even as she forgets things almost quickly as he learns.
I’m in the Trump-stained years, which are coated in a repulsive, sickly slick oil that no one can seem to wash off.
I’m in the years of my living, the short/long time when my light switch is on and I have the great adventure of being awake, awake, awake.