A song of living

A Song Of living

It is so good to be alive ;
To have deep dreams : to greatly strive
Through the day’s work :to dance and sing
Between the times of sorrowing _
To have a clear faith in the end
That death is life’s best ,truthful friend .

To be alive : to hear and see
This wonderful ,strange pageantry
Of earth ,in which each hour’s session
Brings forth a new unknown procession
Of joys :stars ,flowers ,seas and grass
In ever new guise before me pass .

To have deep dreams : ah me , al me !
To bring far things close by see ;
To have my voyaging soul explore
Beyond my body’s ponderous door .
To make my love from a thousand graces ,

To greatly strive :perform my share
Of work : for the world grows more fair
To him who measures Time and Fate
By what his laboring days create-
For work is the voice that lifts to God
The adoration of sod .

To dance and sing :my body’s praise
For being fair in many ways .
It hath no other voice than this
To thank God for a moment’s bliss –
When art and heaven together trust
Joy to the perfection of the dust .

Times of sorrowing :yea , to weep :
To wash my soul with tears , and keep
It clean from earth’s too constant gain ,
Even as a flower needs rain
To cool the passion of the sun ,
And take a fresh new glory on .
To have clear faith :- through good or ill
We but perform some conscious will
Higher than man’s The world at best
In all things doth but manifest
That God has set His internal seal
Upon the unsubstantial real .
Jan Bagwell