My Noble Friend (2009)

My noble friend, when many question why
A person might desire to deeply peer
Into the rich, spectacular night sky,
And seek for solace in the eternal sphere;

When much too many people cannot find
The time to lose themselves in sweet delight
With great ideas; when high Art is maligned
By whom, for all their seeing, have no sight;

When learning and the joy of seeking truth
No longer captivate, no longer shine
In people’s eyes, no sympathy, no ruth
Mark out that subtle spark of the divine:

It’s then, my friend, that you should fear the world,
In expectation of an imminent storm.
When fools rise high, and wisdom is down-hurled,
Corruption reigns, and idiots inform

The public sense, some doom is in the air;
For Boreas, on happy April’s breath,
Shrieks not his oracles of cold despair
With killing frost, with ice and wheezing death!

And tranquil interludes of warm July
Are not precursed with dark calamities;
But sickness is a prophet of demise,
Cachexia, the telltale of disease!

It’s then, my friend, I think that Goodness fled
The world, and waits beside some liquid rill
With hopeful eyes, yet weeping, sore and red,
Whose prayers and tears those waters overspill,

And make their way to earth, for those that heed,
With providence – without them all were vain!
They flow and flourish all in spite of greed,
Piercing the boundless realm of human pain,

And find their way to you and I, my friend,
Who do our best to soothe her woeful stream,
To work this muddy world until it mend,
So we may greet her, other than in dream.