Friday, March 24, 2006

Poem: Changes Four/The Young Shoot


1
Youthful excess leads
To success
In the time of youth

Folly is not an evil
But a byway
On the path

A quick detour
Still circling around
Goodness at the center

2
The fetters are removed
And the youth one day arrives
At the fork in the road

3
Like a spring
At the foot of the mountain
Water rolls ever downward

And escapes stagnation
By filling
The holidays in its path

Accumulating
With raindrops and aquifers
To become bodies of water

Filling earth's pits valleys craters
Lacunae fissures and hollows
With creeks rivers lakes and oceans

4
The fetters are removed
And the youth achieves
Inner strength with outer reserve

The twig is bent
A sapling lists
And becomes a crooked tree

5
The incorrigible must be punished
Those who will not heed
Must be made to feel

Punishment is never
An end in itself
But is one last desperate attempt

To restore order
And understand
Where our love went wrong.
---o0o---

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