Life's Tragedy

i am water swept by the wind to become waves i am a consciousness swept by god to become man inundated by waves of trials and tribulations swirling, crushing, always rushing onward to shore soldiers on field advancing to claim a piece of victory they consider theirs the sand a smooth plain after each swipe of the waves i leap on towards this survival again and again pondering over the meaning of this breath, life, miracle, a blank in my life i beg god would fill out for me those masterful footsteps in my life those guiding steps on the beach after each lap of wave that i am still waiting for inspired by Life's Tragedy It may be misery not to sing at all, And to go silent through the brimming day; It may be misery never to be loved, But deeper griefs than these beset the way. To sing the perfect song, And by a half-tone lost the key, There the potent sorrow, there the grief, The pale, sad staring of Life's Tragedy. To have come near to the perfect love, Not the hot passion of untempered youth, But that which lies aside its vanity, And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth. This, this indeed is to be accursed, For if we mortals love, or if we sing, We count our joys not by what we have, But by what kept us from that perfect thing. Paul Laurence Dunbar