Our Birthright and Our Goal

We are but shadow-figures of ourselves,

Unconscious actors walking through the day,

With unknown dream-worlds peopling our night,

Marionettes descended from the light.

And yet sometimes we feel a press of soul

Upon this dense, half-conscious envelope,

A deep unspoken need that asks for more

Than time allows through life's fast-closing door,

A need to know in an uncaring world,

A need of peace when all we see is war,

A need to love not for ourselves alone,

To feel the Grace that from our lives has flown.

We are descendents here of some vast Will

Assuring us that all is not in vain,

For truth shall justify our long travail

Among the stars, and though we fall and fail

A legacy we feel innately ours

Remains, even when tuned to baser strings,

And seizing upon the temporal release,

Desire satisfied in place of peace.

Change is all we can though we resist,

Identified no more with mind one day

We shall recognize eternity of soul,

A life divine our birthright and our goal.