To We Who Were Undaunted...

  Love must be sincere....

 ...Be devoted to one another in love

Romans 12:9-10
 

To we who were undaunted
by the touch of Time until Her proof pressed into faces
places we can no longer deny and the means to the end
begins to tenderly instill the import of the echo and the imprint of the sigh.

To we who took our turn
among the less accountable but soon outgrew its shoes, to be the teacher, not the tot;
we ought to take to heart the Holy Inevitable and focus on the part that is
 rather than what-is-not

To we well over halfway marks
like man’s three-score and ten (or by reason of added strength the length of fourscore years)
Pray we have learned to love before the tree is hard to bend and the branch seems too brittle
 to soften with tears

To we who have lived long enough
to join the age-old rue that things are not the simpler, sounder way they used to be
 are we who witness Caution's Admonitions coming true, and bear the brunt of wisdom
with surprised humility

To we who seem too old to change
our very seasoned ways (save by the grace of He who doth with mighty Mercy move)
To we who now are daunted by man’s brevity of days. ..let’s take what yet remains of Time and
 turn it into love

© Janet Martin

or the traditional format if preferred...

To we who were undaunted by the touch of Time until

 Her proof pressed into faces places we can no longer deny

and the means to the end begins to tenderly instill

the import of the echo and the imprint of the sigh.

To we who took our turn among the less accountable

but soon outgrew its shoes, to be the teacher, not the tot;

we ought to take to heart the Holy Inevitable

 and focus on the part that is rather than what-is-not

To we well over halfway marks like man’s three-score and ten

 (or by reason of added strength the length of fourscore years)

 Pray we have learned to love before the tree is hard to bend

and the branch seems too brittle to soften with tears

To we who have lived long enough to join the age-old rue

 that things are not the simpler, sounder way they used to be

are we who witness Caution's Admonitions coming true,

 and bear the brunt of wisdom with surprised humility

To we who seem too old to change our very seasoned ways

(save by the grace of He who doth with mighty Mercy move)

To we who now are daunted by man’s brevity of days. ..

let’s take what yet remains of Time and turn it into love

© Janet Martin