New Bread Broken

New Bread Broken

 

To Fear Falling Off,

To Fear Jumping Off.

 

What would win me to its wishes

By the beauties that abound

In the rapture of my falling

    

Like a raindrop

To the ground?

 

I need only

Ask the question:

Shall I live, or shall I die?

And may presently discover

 

If I fall or if I fly!

 

For the vale below entreats me,

And the impulse seems to swell,

 

As I dither in the ether

Of a pause that pleases well!

 

I am like a new bread broken

When an old sin is confessed �"

 

In the crucible of wonder,

I have teetered on the crest.

---

[1] Of this complicated poem, Paris said that the passion of Christ should come to mind. We choose life every moment that we rise on behalf of love, and we do so with a view to our future happiness exceeding our present suffering. To that end, Christ put skin in the game on our behalf, even though he was not required to care about us at all. And just as importantly, he had the courage to see things through to the end.