A second

Is a grain of sand,

A moment,

A glance,

A bird in hand.

A second is a blink of the eye,

A pang,

A peck,

A kiss goodbye.

A second, the finest thread that leaves

A stitch within your tapestry,

A fragment in your galaxy,

A comma in your biography.

Just a pixel in your memory.

But a minute:

...A minute's long enough to think,

To fathom out your missing link.

A minute's short enough to dream,

To imagine that you've won and scream.

Intensive concentration meets

A thousand revs, a hundred beats,

An old familiar entity,

Big Apple time, expansively.

In extra time it feels like more,

Depending of course upon the score.

An hour

Is composed enough,

To organize time or attempt as much.

Because hours have a tendency

To compress, accelerate …then flee.

No, hours don't hang around too long.

The more you squeeze in,

The sooner they’re gone.

So multi-taskers feel aggrieved

That whole mornings pass

With nout achieved.

A day,

That's all for our planet to rotate,

One dreamy daze,

One sleepless night,

A day is two relentless tides:

Commute / collapse,

Rest-up / revive.

A somersault of circumstance,

With tables turned,

A change of stance.

A week

Flies by like a quickening breeze,

Keeps naughty days in line with ease.

Keeps the wheels of business turning,

Keeps children smart and teachers learning.

A month,

A cycle,

A lunar phase.

Anticipated optimistically,

Driven uncontrollably,

Colliding unavoidably,

Remembered sentimentally.

Enough to put you in arrears,

It's not as long as it appears.

Here's a heads-up: With heads kept down,

A month can force your smile to frown.

But a year

...Now there's some serious chunk of time!

When judges sentence, when terms define.

Just one lap around our sun

Gives oak its rings, prompts migration.

Or a landmark consigned to history.

Another birthday or anniversary.

Irresistible, it conquers fear,

To unchartered pages by pioneers

Who stand or fall by guile and luck,

They plan ahead they dive and duck.

...For you and I, best not try to shape it,

A year is precious.

Accept, embrace it.

Don't hesitate when it invites you in,

Proceed with cautious optimism.

A New Year ...the gateway of a maze,

Seconds, minutes, hours and days,

Weeks and months lie in wait,

Design their course and plot our fate. cont.

So be warned, the New Year won't slow down for us,

Strap yourself in ...for breathlessness.

You could squander the year trying to shape it

Don't prevaricate,

Try not to waste it.

The annual chance to perfect (or improve at least),

To stay on course, to slay the beast.

To influence our history,

...At least 'til the end of January!