New poem: "A Tide in the Affairs of Men"

 

 

A Tide in the Affairs of Men

 

For years I was lost in the wilderness of life,

struggling to survive as I looked for a way

out. I read, studied, and asked everyone I could

to point the way out; but no one could help me,

and I despaired. I was so lonely that I turned

to God for help. Looking up into the sky one night,

Shakespeare came to my mind: “There is a tide

in the affairs of men /Which, taken at the flood,

leads on to fortune.” Was my tide at full flood?

I pleaded with God: “Is my fortune here, or must

I look for it elsewhere?” A bright star shot through

the sky, and I knew in my heart I had to leave home

and look in the wide-open world for a way out. “And

we must take the current when it serves, /Or lose

our ventures,” said the noble bard. I took the current

and fled to Annecy, France where I began my quest

for a way out; and when I returned from my year-long

sojourn, I found a certain teaching in the hallowed

halls of academia that opened the way to my true self;

and with heaven’s help, I blazed a literary trail out

of the wilderness of life for other lost souls to follow,

beginning with my novel that shocked the people

of my hometown, What Would I Say Today

If I Were to Die Tomorrow?

 

Composed in Tiny Beaches,

Georgian Bay, Southcentral, Ontario

Sunday, November 24, 2024