That I am subject to intemperate change

And victim to fate’s whimsy or fate’s spite

Seems strangely undeserved of late.

Sometimes, when all is well, I wish the sun

Would ne’er set swiftly on that day;

And night, dark night forget to call.

 

For I am dragged relentlessly each year

Through winter’s death, and then to be restored

In spring’s resurgent breath and there,

Being softly lulled in summer’s apogee,

Fall prey again to autumn’s sick decay.

 

Oh that I, a magus on some stage perhaps,

Could freeze the beauty of a summers’ morn

Or hold chill winds from tender flesh at bay?

Or that I might recreate from distant memory

Each and every perfect day, thereby;

Erasing all decay and misery in mind.

 

Oh, that I could with one enchanting spell

Command time as I may, to stop or start

As I dictate according to my will;

To pause, take stock of life’s ingratitudes

Indeed, to change ill fate to nature’s good.

 

There was a time, when time was young

When freedom was my only song;

Say God, I must have done it all!

I travelled far and I travelled wide,

I crossed the river to the other side-

Where the voice of silence still remains.

 

So I’ll say no more of sorrow

Or her sister sweet despair!

In this empty, vacuumed place

The soul’s voice, of necessity,

Recites its solemn litanies

Of anxious do’s and don’ts.

 

A liturgy of griefs and doubts no doubt?

Within this dark and formless space,

I am and then conversely I am not;

Alive in someone else perchance,

Alone, where my dull heart beats out,

Beats out in perpetuity, but not in me.

 

Thus ends his days our bold Prometheus

Chained to his rock while vultures nightly prey.

Who, born to his trials by light of day,

Dies daily of his needless fears by night.

And softly in his beating heart recites...

 

Oh hidden God where art thou hid?

In stone or flesh, in every singing bird and living tree

Within the stitch, within the hidden seam

Within the fabric or the thread of nature’s tapestry?

So, as your boundless mercy doubtless is revered,

Reveal yourself and end this timeless doubt.

 

Oh Hidden One why art thou hid,

In distant memory, in faith or mindless hope?

Beyond the walls of ignorance and mystery,

Beyond the walls of greed and degradation.

Entombed within the confines of my exiled self

Thy will incarcerate, thy silent voice will out!

 

All-Loving God how art thou loved indeed;

In every limb, in every leaf, in every bird and stone,

In every church and mosque and synagogue.

All-Knowing God who art unknown to all

How might we know with certainty

Why thou hast abandoned all to grief?

 

Oh Timeless Lord in boundless space,

When will we reach the further shore,

Whose compass might we trust on Earth,

And in eternity how ought we cease to be?

Will you remember what we did so mindlessly

And will the record of our days remain?