The Tolling Bell
As the skies cover the nitrous blue with a uncertain white
And as the sun transforms itself from a yellow chariot into a descending catalyst
And as the stillness of the open is disturbed by the invisible force of air
And as I walk alone with my head low and my heart sinking…
I am drawn by the sound of the tolling bell…
And as I am surrounded by a dark atmosphere,
The resonating sound of that iron instrument plays a tune of a certain end.
Is it the end of the day?
Or the month?
Or the year?
Or the end of the journey?
Can it be that this old calling could every well be the song of death?
If it is so, then I feel afraid by the blankness of the road ahead of me
And cold by the overwhelming sight and sound of my own demise.
Is there something mysterious and hypnotic about that echo which have brought together
Or torn apart?
However, the ray of hope lies in the building in which the bell can be found.
Maybe this transition is simply the end of the life I lived with and the life I have been promised
Maybe this is something not be feared but to be embraced.
I see that there is something comforting about this uneasy environment.
The surroundings are taking me home like a painting from “one who has shown”…
And as the sound of the bell fades into the vast nowhere of the land… I walk on to meet my destiny.
Date of First Draft: 18 March 1999
Information: It was written during German class after talking with Andrew Thompson about death and associating with a ringing bell. This poem was used at the Herndon High School Writers’ Conference 1999
Annotations: “One who has shown” is a reference to El Greco (see “Observations While Writing an Ode to the Holy Muse”)