Re-energize the Soul

8/2/01

We merely ride the surface of Time's wave

And deeper depths and greater shores ignore,

Content to skim the surface for awhile

Reluctant to confront or to explore

The meaning and the message of our birth,

Our purpose in this random play of fate,

Or heed the secret Resident within

Preferring worldly joys to fill and sate

The passing years as nymphs upon a stream

Who briefly live and then are swallowed up

By forces that wait beneath the conscious flow,

Or slowly vegetate and drain the cup

Of life, retaining fragmentary dreams

As one who glimpses in a speeding car

Visions of beauty, treasure-realms of earth

Content to view their magic from afar,

Unwilling to slow the hours' frantic pace;

We live in a present pursued by a dogged past.

Still, the future calls us to exceed

Our human failings, dismiss the tired cast

Of inept characters that people us,

Appoint the Self to play the leading role.

Alive to wonder crowding round our lives,

Inflame the heart, re-energize the soul.