Poem: Transitions, for Charles Hearn

We long for the before and after,

clinging to the past,

impatient for the future.

But we live in the in-between,

always having to let go

and move on.

Don't miss the beauty

of each present moment.

Make of it a perfect marriage

of memory and desire.

Robert Hamblin is emeritus professor of English at Southeast Missouri State University, where he taught for 50 years and served as the founding director of the school's Center for Faulkner Studies. He is the author or editor of nearly 60 books, including poetry, fiction, literary criticism, biographies and memoirs. He is currently working on a series of ekphrastic poems based on photographs he admires. As he says, "Photographs speak; all you have to do is listen."