A Letter for the Ages

A Poem by David Smothers

A letter for the ages

How are the ancients
Able to influence yet our fearful hearts?
Do they seemingly know,
How we come to pass?
Through the many trials in life?
And yet,
Somehow they knew we would find,
Our way.

Yet again,
Laid bare before life's cruel and bitter steps,
We,
Together,
Pass through the flame.

Longing,
To hence,
Hold their hands,
To find,
Our way.

How did they know?
Or did they?
Was life just a system of guessing?
Equally for them as it is us?
Maybe.

We long to know,
To understand,
The purpose,
Of the valleys that so strongly bring us down.

Step by step,
We forget the ascending to the top of our mountains,
As we sink to darkness,
Then,
In a moment,
Caught by surprise,
The clouds,
The clouds that enveloped our spirit,
Subside.

Then produced
Is the sun of life
The goodness out of the stormy valley
The blindness of unknowing sorrow
Is thence lifted
If only for a moment
Thus blissful

Will you journey with me
Side by side
Through those valleys
To the peaks of life
So fleeting
And yet
So rewarding
Where we catch our breath
Before the descending
To the next trial of life?

Take my hand
We can
Work together
To watch out for each other
To say the sweet words of encouragement
To lift our voices
As one
Will you consider a new journey
With me.