Voice of Choice

 I started this poem early yesterday morning before being distracted by sunrise skies...

 before being moved by this message...

before Sunday dinner at my parents...

before not getting home til after dark

before beginning another week as soon as our feet hit home-turf last night

...and somehow it became a poem about choices 

because SO much has happened recently to

impress on me the long-term impact of choices!
 

This race of hopes and dreams we chase and replace year by year  

Is like game of guesses always veiled in Now and Here

Where mankind, always caught between what was and waits to be

Must choose to trust in God or wallow in fear’s misery

Choice is an awesome twinkle in the eye of centuries

Its impact, none can fathom as its slips from touch with ease

To endure the dynamics of a far and forward path

Where many feet will follow in its concrete aftermath

So subtle in its bearing, Choice sets out a vast buffet

And voices if the heart could talk the words that it would say

And like a spark can start a fire, Choice, cruel or kind

Can set a course in motion that never once crossed the mind

Time’s steadfast pace of change, while oft it rearranges plans

Can never thwart the channels that the mercy of God spans

Then, take heart, fellow-traveler, for the unknown road we face

Runs through and to the outstretched hands of everlasting grace

…so we may choose to trust or wallow in fear’s misery

And we may choose gods doomed to dust or Love’s Authority

And we may choose to lose our life in answer to God’s call

Or choose to turn our backs on Him and through this lose it all

© Janet Martin