Branches

Friend, before life moves us to the parting ways Let wisdom tell from rend of heart its lessons old That you may take your journey springing praise And mend with gladness dream and mirrored fold One road invites the universe of man to dawn The place we left in awe of sword and flash of fire Stumbling from purpose and lapping dew for ire Making the circle of return to the cradle of the fawn It's two things the oracle challenges us to know Where the road diverges into many different paths What vision shapes the skill that need will show To meet the tests that sever self from it thoughts And lift the eagle to the pinnacle of brimming star And say to soul you are worth more than you seem In any dissection of the flesh or weighing of dream The mantle is mask that pretends not who we are. What if one branching path a wide lake must cross What if another a snow-capped cliff must clamber o'er And still the next has serpents slithering in the grass And one stretch endless like miles of a sandy shore Shall the swimmer charm the serpents, swim The sands, and climb the mirror face of ice Against a different purpose will his dream suffice Or all mismatched paths not a meet a fate still grim? O too many on the wrong path are embarked, too few Their purpose know before the journey begins The shipwreck on deserts straddle the sense as clue Ignored ... self-blinded race, drowning in our sins He who foreknew us predestined purpose too Each tree is seeded after its kind, each man can Achieve only what is set in the primordial plan The broad way is littered with much too much to rue. What use is choice unless some context tell the aim For once and only once we choose the path to good And joy, the river does not return, the sea is the same Only at the rapids end. Not what I would, but what I should Is all I need to know. It's not the prize but the race We run is what we are destined for. Go now, friend And wing the light and for mist of truth contend The swift may run, but the wise the victory taste.