To Find My Soul's Identity

As might a bird with broken wing

Attempt a flight across the sea,

So with my soul that feels the sting

Of love betrayed by jealousy.

No longer do I seek to know

Or reason why our lives are fraught

With disappointment and distress,

A touch of love and we are caught

Into a net of loneliness

When one must stay, the other go.

Now in my seventieth year

Of life so little have I learned.

A neophyte in adult gear

To outward joys too often turned

And swept by tide and undertow.

I often feel the weight of time

Pressing down upon my soul,

Although my spirit seeks to climb

Inexorable is the toll,

That makes each effort pained and slow

And karmic ties hold me still

A captive of my halting past,

In me the power of the Will

Seems compromised and cannot last

Until the heart and mind comply

And I gain freedom from the past

To find my soul's identity

And all my petty self outgrow.