The Sine Qua Non of Absence and Presence

About this poem

Absence reminds us of the magnificence and fullness of presence. And presence asks us to be mindful that its fullness can also forebode the emptiness of absence. This poem, ‘The Sine Qua Non of Absence and Presence,’ was inspired partly by Alicia Elsbeth Stallings’ 2002 published poem, ‘Sine Qua Non,’ and especially because of the emotionally charged impact of the frequent absences and rare but precious moments of a father’s presence on the lives of the four young children of the mercurial ex-NBA athlete, Michael Paul Beasley, who currently serves overseas as a power forward with the Shanghai Sharks basketball team in China’s east coast by the Yangtze River Delta. His communication with his children during these times, is therefore primarily by long-distance correspondence. Stallings’ ‘Sine Qua Non’ composition is composed as a two-stanza poem divided into one set of eight lines and another set of seven lines. On the contrary, this poem employs a rhyming scheme, with the first stanza of eight lines having line one rhyming with line four; with lines two and three rhyming; with line five coupled with line eight; and with lines six and seven pairing to complete the poem’s first stanza. The second stanza of the Stallings poem contains six lines, but retains a near similar metrical pattern as the first stanza, with a rhymed coupling of lines one and four, lines two and three, and lines five and six. In this six-stanza, four-line rhymed poem, ‘The Sine Qua Non of Absence and Presence,’ a consistent repetitive rhymed meter scheme is employed throughout the poem, with the following rhyme coupling pattern of lines one and three; and lines two and four. Most importantly is to note that this poem is not written as a parody of the Stallings poem, but to depict how both the absence and the presence of a father in young children’s lives are emotionally charged experiences that are, at the same time, equally emotionally heartwarming, especially when they are recompensed by tender loving kindness in the physical presence of a caring father that is manifested and maintained even in his absence. more »