Paul Gerard Reed

It Was The Striving

When I think back

It was the striving that made us happy

A target to aim for,

A growing-up to live through;

Striving wasn\'t an effort

It was just the thing we wanted to do

To get somewhere;

 

Enjoyment and pleasure cannot compete with it

The wanting to land somewhere

On a high plain,

On life\'s ledges;

Where we could stop and take a breath

And decide that we\'d almost made it

Even though we hadn\'t;

 

And now, all this is past

Like a river flowed by

Like a long drawn-out goodbye

And we are left with an empty space

No longer in the race,

Nothing left but surviving

Gone, the glorious striving.