Not all things given by grace may be obtained through work. There are those gifts of grace, and many things may be earned through effort, but few are the things that may be granted by both.


Would that he could see
As I see him
But I cannot bend his vision
As I cannot bend the sky
Such words are trite

Its very movement betrays its weakness
Only in motion is it at peace
Stillness is its dread
Blowing from one thing to another
Stirring up waves
Brewing storms
Its touch envelops
mellifluous
ungraspable

fame bright
it was not by form was I enthralled
but in that fine lamp
was such a light
warm and pleasant as the day
it was not mine eyes did betray me then
no-that sequestered child and his pet
that sings without end
or closure
and dark the day
when at last the sun I saw
after many days of night
for that bold star does shine his light for all
high above the nether
he swings his giddy lamp carelessly
while I do stand upon the floor
too low to travel there
as icarus did with wings of wax
but voices are as music
and are given wings to fly
and so I raised my own to speak
to this bright fame
that seeming knew me
even as he knows all others
i, alone in my thoughts,
did fail at first to see
that the light of the sun is not given sole to me
and so my child, ignorant of his innocence
did plant that dread seed
which virulently, violently
grew within my breast
threatening to extinguish
much dismayed I cried to the child
The sun shines not upon you alone
Curb thy growth, stem the swelling
Of that fell plant that means to flower
But will only, in the end, devour.
the child said it would rather cultivate
than hibernate
and so I spoke to the sun
and in doing confirmed my conviction
then did my child at last cut back that potent weed
i offered to him to destroy that flower
But no, said the child
For I have but few seeds to plant
And do long at last to behold
The fullness of its bloom
But it is not to be, said i
The sun shines not for me
But shares its light for others
Then I will wait, said the child, his bird singing all the while