575 and 579

Atonement. What Another did for me,

to make me never know my consequence.

But how ignorant of it I can be,

unless I choose a token of expense.

Atonement. What I do to earn the right

to know of Grace. Tho Grace made null the weight

of what I choose to feel. But I make light

the burden of my sins by bearing fate.

Atonement. What we share. Unequal shares

of fire and of forge, tho I must take

a blow upon the anvil, while he bears

the forge itself–for he, at least, won’t break.

But I can take a share. Because he first

took from me all that made me truly cursed.

~~~

Do not forget, my friend, the sage advice

that will attend you someday—in some years:

to let the colors of the earth entice

your eyes, more than its pleasures or its fears.

Feast on its colors, be they drab or lush,

and watch no other scene win o’er your trust.

Be not caught up in indulgence’s rush,

nor lose yourself to anxiety’s lust.

You are observant: watch what you watch best,

not others, nor yourself—who you know least;

but watch, instead, the colors; and protest

all that distracts from this—earth’s sweetest feast.

A man will tell you in your brightest youth.

Regard it not as wisdom, but as truth.