When You Are Young
...dedicated to W.B. Yeats, in response
to his poem 'When You Are Old'
When you are young sweet innocence abounds,
your step is gentle, all your dreams are free
of grim disquietude, such joy you see
as gaily you discharge your daily rounds.
Your heart is light, bereft of grave concern
that troubles him whose purity is lost,
who argues and contends at any cost,
who complicates and twists at every turn.
Simplicity must be your cornerstone,
strengthen your heart against all sorts of strife
that undermine a childlike view of life,
strive and prevail, lest innocence be gone!
Copyright © Keith Bickerstaffe | Year Posted 2009
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