All I Need

April 15, 2016

Dragging myself from sparkling waters

Swollen toes cry salvation on golden sands.

Majestic palms laughingly slap salty ocean breezes

A ship may be lost but, lo, her motley cargo soddenly stands!

The minutes drag by. I recover my wits,

Scanning the horizon from side to side.

I must seek help, a way to find home.

If ever I’m to salvage this wretched hide.

The horizon is empty, no one in sight.

What strange place is this my soul hath reached?

Echoes of childhood, traversing the world,

on an alien shore, yet again, I am beached.

Alone, in foreign terrain, do I give up?

It’s an option I fast eschew!

Food and water, a friendly smile,

Would that these might see me through!

This is but a reflection of times gone by

When I’ve been cast forth to fight

In the jungles of schoolyards where survival depends

Solely on the presence of physical might.

Or in vast halls of scholarly institutions

Where subjects and methods are new

How to hone my skills and forge my path;

So, tallies in, I’ll have sailed on through?

Scraps of knowledge, a hoard of experience!

There are innumerable things that I might need.

Sound judgment, hard work, clearest of thinking.

To persevere, none save one, can do the deed.

'Tis the force that carried me here

And bears me to each new place.

It nurtures me and gives me strength

So that every morning I courageously face.

Thus, on bended knee in sundrenched Earth

I humbly beg and plead.

God, grant me but a drop of this one thing alone...

The faith to follow wherever You lead.

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