Life is tough
And takes no prisoners,
Yet there’s nowhere else to go,
We are caught
Between routine
And the cosmic ebb and flow.
Out of this
We need to struggle
With five senses as our guide,
If we fail
To find the way
There is nowhere else to hide.
Our vocabulary
Does not suffice
To articulate the things we feel,
As we squander
What would avoid
Another life upon the wheel.
Whichever way
We twist and turn
Upon the spit above the fire
The oxygen of life
Both fans and tempers
All that to which we most aspire.
Those dimensions
Carefully tailored
To the screen of life we know
How can power-led
Leaders help us
Find the way we need to go?
No simple fix
No dreams come true
No ‘if only’s’ pave the way;
We must hack
The path ourselves,
Face our fortunes day by day.
What you have
Is there within you –
A life force and a spirit spark;
Let them manifest
their presence
As a lightness in the dark.
July 1992