806 and 808
Of all wise words that have been said or sung,
by fairest fae or by the faintest flea,
the truest talk of any touring tongue
has been to say what is and what might be.
And anyone can say it. Any voice
can voice what is and what is not quite yet.
Even the veins of Earth’s hills have no choice
but to be what they are: what they beget.
But we are not so honest, you and I.
We may not even know what ‘is’—what ‘might’—
what has and has not flashed before our eye
we stitch to stories that might not be right.
We tell not being, not what might yet be,
and, all throughout our lives, learn how to see.
~~~
O pining, yearning, aching, longing, lost,
O dreaming, wishing, hoping, pleading, pained,
do not reduce the measure of your cost
to something that is “your fault” or guilt-stained!
O man who pines for what life will not give,
O woman yearning for what will not be,
do not forget that so it is to live,
that so is everyone’s “be living” fee.
O you forsaken wanter, want on still,
O you rejected in your longing, go:
do not convince yourself your unmet will
deserves to be less noble than you know.
Want. Want! And want as well as you can try,
and lonesome, and together, we will cry.