Flowers Set on Tables - 5 of 5

So, I returned to the solemnity of the Great Hall,

Where love is and flowers are set on tables.

And I asked myself what men will think

Who will think of things after me,

Except for what I have thought.

 

And I heard a voice say:

 

‘Yes, that is the fate of all men

Who will come after you,

Just as it is your fate

 

To think what men have thought before you.

“For all is vanity, a pursuit of the wind.”

 

And so, I spent some days contemplating

What the voice had imparted to me,

 

And those days turned into many good years,

And the many good years into a lifetime �"

And still, I was glad to contemplate

What the voice had said to me �"

 

Sometimes in the forsaken hours before dawn,

When I was alone and wary of the darkness,

And sometimes in the glow of twilight,

When my servants had prepared

A table for me in the Garden

Where I broke bread

With loved ones.

 

And each time that I did this,

I took respite in the loving arms of hope

And beheld the promise of a trusted face,

Which had for the length of my lifetime

Been a beacon of purpose and meaning.

 

But now, the end of days had come,

And I was summoned with others

To the quarters of the Master

 

And given an easy task.

 

For the Great Hall was in peril

And only we few had the means

To act on the Great Hall’s behalf.

 

And the Master did not hold back

His gratitude for our small service

 

But gave us new servants,

Even before we served him.

 

And I said to those who were mine:

 

‘See that flowers are placed in vases

And set on the tables of the Great Hall

As emblems of the honor that I am given.’[1]

 

And I knew that this would be done

Because those who were given to me

Were sons and daughters of the Eternal.

 

And so, in the ebullient glow

Of the next day’s sun, I awoke

And set out upon my mission,

 

Knowing that I would succeed

In the easy task I was given.

 

For angels, old and new,

Had placed flowers on tables,

And now, shouted triumphantly,

As I moved through their midst,

 

Taking each golden hand offered

In love and indubitable fellowship.

 

“[And] my yoke [was] easy,

And my burden [was] light.”

 

-POSTSCRIPT-

 

I could choose to walk with the herd,

Fling my body from a high mountain,

Or claim things that are not mine.

But none of these activities

Can alter the paradigm

In which they occur

Because they are

The paradigm.

 

A better paradigm is necessary �"

One that transcends measurable time

 

And has always been

Available within me.

---

[1] Paris believed that the cost of doing difficult virtuous things is diminished by the practice of doing easier virtuous things. Setting flowers on tables is a metaphor for doing small acts of virtue, a laudable discipline that increases faith and reduces existential fear.

 

 

Author's Note

This piece is a part of my revised work, previously posted at WritersCafe.org. It is from a book in which some of the entries are written in prose or poetic prose.