Like everyone who views Endgame by Samuel Beckett, I am haunted by the production.  Coincidentally today happens to be my birthday.  Haunted, troubled by a theatrical production on my birthday.  I suppose that is no coincidence when you consider that life is nothing but a production; just a succession of roles that must be played, if we are to “get on” with others.

The poem comes very near to the conclusion of Endgame.  It is precursor to the final soliloquy of the main character, Hamm.  Hamm believes that he is alone, abandoned by his long suffering caretaker Clov.  However Clov stands unnoticed in the doorway, a silent witness to all that follows.  Hamm who is blind exclaims…

A little poetry….

     You prayed—
     You CRIED for night; it comes—
     It FALLS: now cry in darkness.
     You cried for night; it falls: now cry in darkness.

(Nicely put, that.)

     And now?
     Moments for nothing,
     now as always, time was never and time is over,
     reckoning closed and story ended.

Is that the final word to be said about “life?”  Of course not.  It is a word that must be faced head on, affirmed as a truth that comes at us, whether we like it or not.  Also, not to be forgotten is the silent witness(es) to all of one’s spoken lines.  When we believe we are alone, it befits us to play our part, to deliver our lines well. 

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The photo in the heading is of Andromeda, the galaxy closest to our Milky Way.