IN YOUR EMPTY PALMS

It's a poem of that old story about priorities: Which should we choose that will make us stronger?

�Man is no fool who will love what
He cannot keep in order to gain
What he cannot afford to lose.�
--James Elliott


What is it he cannot keep?
A fool opens his palms
And counts his worth:
Gold and silver heaped
For his pleasure, not for alms.
He�s been a fool since birth.

What is it he cannot keep?
The wise man�s palms upturned
Towards heaven are bare.
But at night he can sleep
Because as a child he learned
To place his life in God�s care.

What is it he cannot keep?
The beauty of God�s creation,
This life that will escape him,
Loved ones gone for whom he weeps.
He is no fool. He allows patience
In his allotted time to shape him

What can he not afford to lose?
The fool equates life with breath.
Success at any cost.
He will say he paid his dues
And he won�t stop until death
Comes and turns him into dust.

What can he not afford to lose?
The wise man says it�s faith:
Believing we�re born to die
So we can share the good news
With those in that heavenly place.
�Lose that? Asks the wise man. �Why?�

#