of being alive

of being alive

Desire kindles its own fire.
Love reaches for strength.
Faith keeps watch through the longest night.

Bitterness opens its darkened gate.

Wisdom bends low to listen.
Peace settles where striving has grown weary.
Death walks among them, neither first nor last.

Here gather

the old companions of the human heart:
longing and devotion,
power and tenderness,
understanding and loss.

Each seeks dominion for a moment,
each leaves its mark upon the soul.

And within their ceaseless crossing,
their quarrels and embraces,
their endless turning about one another,

resides the beautiful madness
of being alive.

.