Intimations of Mortality, etc.
By
Tony Dawson
Intimations of Mortality
So, what comes next when my life on earth
is over and death leaves me sans breath?
Maimonides offers me Olam Ha-ba, the world
to come, no doubt by way of Gehenna, a place
where my soul will be cleansed of earthly wrongs,
the list of which I fancy will be extensive.
My objection to Olam Ha-ba is that the spiritual
world has no food or drink to enjoy, the pleasures
of the flesh that I will miss after years of savouring
the appetizing cuisine of my beautiful wife.
Nothing offered in Olam Ha-ba would compare
with the bliss I have experienced with her,
so, sorry Maimonides, my friend, I’ll opt for nothing.
No resurrection, thanks, unless she’s there too.
Yet according to you, I won’t be given a choice.
Marking Time
In some sense time is infinitely finite
although, as a dimension, it has no end.
We look upon time as something that passes,
dividing it into past, present and future,
whereas time itself is eternally present.
While living beings experience time
as a process of inevitable degradation
that culminates in the finality of death,
the space-time continuum never dies.
It’s normal to think of time as moving
because our lives unfold on a planet
that spins on its axis and orbits a star,
requiring terms like ‘night’ and ‘day’,
and ‘months’ and ‘years’ to mark the time
frames that hold in place the ‘flexible fabric’
that erodes everything, but especially us.
Tony Dawson has been living in Seville since 1989 and has published over 200 poems, mostly in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. He has published three small collections:
Afterthoughts reviewed at: https://londongrip.co.uk/2023/06/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson/
Musings reviewed at: https://londongrip.co.uk/2026/02/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson-2/
and Reflections in a Dirty Mirror reviewed at: https://londongrip.co.uk/2026/02/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson-3/
By
Tony Dawson
Intimations of Mortality
So, what comes next when my life on earth
is over and death leaves me sans breath?
Maimonides offers me Olam Ha-ba, the world
to come, no doubt by way of Gehenna, a place
where my soul will be cleansed of earthly wrongs,
the list of which I fancy will be extensive.
My objection to Olam Ha-ba is that the spiritual
world has no food or drink to enjoy, the pleasures
of the flesh that I will miss after years of savouring
the appetizing cuisine of my beautiful wife.
Nothing offered in Olam Ha-ba would compare
with the bliss I have experienced with her,
so, sorry Maimonides, my friend, I’ll opt for nothing.
No resurrection, thanks, unless she’s there too.
Yet according to you, I won’t be given a choice.
Marking Time
In some sense time is infinitely finite
although, as a dimension, it has no end.
We look upon time as something that passes,
dividing it into past, present and future,
whereas time itself is eternally present.
While living beings experience time
as a process of inevitable degradation
that culminates in the finality of death,
the space-time continuum never dies.
It’s normal to think of time as moving
because our lives unfold on a planet
that spins on its axis and orbits a star,
requiring terms like ‘night’ and ‘day’,
and ‘months’ and ‘years’ to mark the time
frames that hold in place the ‘flexible fabric’
that erodes everything, but especially us.
Tony Dawson has been living in Seville since 1989 and has published over 200 poems, mostly in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. He has published three small collections:
Afterthoughts reviewed at: https://londongrip.co.uk/2023/06/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson/
Musings reviewed at: https://londongrip.co.uk/2026/02/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson-2/
and Reflections in a Dirty Mirror reviewed at: https://londongrip.co.uk/2026/02/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson-3/
