Divine Dichotomy

There is a sword in every pilgrimage
to make of one a stoic
celebrated for the punishment of sense.
And beds of nails may well advance the soul,
extinguishing desire for one.
And yet another learns the agony of guilt.
The curriculum is anguish.
The diploma is despair.

Here is proffered the nobility of pain.
The graduated anima pristine
by virtue of its tears.

All this to nourish one perception of a prize?
For there is calculation here to dazzle sight
and blind the eye of faith,
while severed heads of enemies
then make us stumble on the path.
And we would elevate the quest
and call it sacrifice?

 

The gift of life is not reciprocal
unless the liberated heart will lift it up
as worthy of its own.
The prize unsought;
the goal beyond the roiling clouds of circumstance.
And then its jeweled crown is raised
above the heads of all,
and all are one.
       ~

 

Reviews

[Lydia Shutter]

Circumstance...we all are victims of Madame Fate, Dean. Nothing we can do to stop that, is there? To suffer more makes one more successful? In some ways, that is all too true. Many people go for the gold as it were....try to achieve more than the next guy. When the goals are met, is that person a winner? Does it make that person more worthy in some spiritual sense? I don't believe so, but perhaps some do. Hard to understand why people believe as they do. Your poetry is consistently well written and intense. Lydi**

[Tom]

Some heavy sacrifices are made for mankind to prosper, doesn't seem fair though for those on the receiving end, although some would contend that life is not fair !

A deep perspective on the human physic and no less rewarding for it ! A powerful write once more!

[Dean]

Thank you, Tom

[Marie]

If progress means suffering, no wonder so many of us are stuck.

[Dean]

is there ever progress without it?