"Striving" by John Sayers

My Dearest Friend

This poem was updated to correct a problem with the address for the post, following the initial publication.

May grace and peace be with you today!

I am taking a personal retreat of sorts – alone at home, having a rare day to uninterruptedly think my own thoughts and feel my own feelings. (I know: dangerous, right?)

While pondering my life, aspirations, and the human condition, I picked up this draft poem "Striving", which I first began about two years ago. I've tried to finish it 2-3 times, and today I took another crack at it.

Is it now "finished"? Well, it is as good as I can make it today – so my choice was to either shelve it again (for goodness knows how long) or let it stand in the clear sun. I hope you either enjoy it, find in it something of value, or at the least are able to tolerate my poetic insufficiencies out of friendship!

I think poetry is always best read aloud, because that way you can feel the rhythm and texture of the words and phrases in your body. Taking that approach also slows and deepens the process of information consumption, as you make choices regarding intonation or inflection as you "perform" the piece. And as you become part of the poem's music, your heart and mind open in new ways.

Striving

To what can we attain;
What joys our precious world conceive?
Shall we move from grace to grace,
Or make mockery of our absurdity?
Blind we toil--faltering, unavailing--
Generous in our misery.

I am but a failed, frail Love--
Bound tight to all that I can see.
But shall I shoulder high above the world?
Unite suffering to joy, lift all with me?

I rise; the shrouds fly free.
One mile I climb hungeringly.
Come second mile, my breath abates,
Come third, a path I cannot see,
Come fourth, I fall--fade back into obscurity.

A treacherous path I climb,
To rise and fall repeatedly,
Not covered by iniquity or dread,
But courage past the world’s imagining.
I’ll rest not among the lonely dead, 
But live within Their gathering.

With love and prayers,

John S.