Songs to Sing

Drawn by the calling of a lonely flute

From the dark pavilions of the night

I wandered lone among the leafless trees

And wanted in my soul to set things right

But the grief of all the world was gathered there

And I unable, sightless, lost my way.

I groped and learned that by the touch of things

One can hold the dogs of thought at bay,

Another way of seeing than with the eyes.

Somewhere behind the heart a spirit free

From all the machinations of the mind

Knows the route to lost eternity.

I saw when the impossible appeared

Beyond, the possibility of love

The conqueror who lives unseen in us,

Our guardian descended from above,

The centre of the universe in man

Accepting our hatred and our pain

Our sorrow and our short-lived happiness

Transmuting all to beauty once again.

And now within my hermitage I wait

The turn of things toward essential good,

In the moment breathe, discard the heavy past

A finer air, a will to live my food,

Determined that the being shall not yield

To hopelessness or harbour self-remorse

But carry on the battle to be won,

Defeat and failure steps upon the course.

Though the body fails and spirit, tiring, slows

I still have songs to sing as God allows.