River of Tears

RIVER OF TEARS

It Has been

A life long lived

In the shadow of giants

They strove and gave

Until they their life energy spent

Sacrifice, material and life

Through troubles and strife

To the place we have now

Which is but a step

To those days long promised

When we are all one

Oh how I have longed

Year upon year

To live in those days

When the help was needed

In so many ways

The only way I saw

Was to do my best

And to give my all

Knowing that in the end

I would leave this earth

Not knowing

Was it enough?

The future is present

Within my mind

Thinking about the day

When growth has come

And how much more

The world has become

A distant place

In books and minds

A place of unity

On earth defined

I never thought

Not for one moment

That I would live to see

The signs of unity

Come before me

In a crescendo of power

Messages flow

And the love doth shower

Each letter I see

From that Holy mount

Brings profound changes

Within my heart

My heart swells

With every word

Tears roll down

With every line

Helping direct

My life newly defined

I thought I would never see

The things that have come to be

The joy I feel

An energy released

To strive and bring alive

The words I read

Mounting our unfurled steeds

Those long gone

Have lead the charge

The ranks doth swell

The mission enlarged

The path they laid

With blood and sacrifice hath paid

And now the baton we hold

Though will soon pass on

As each generation

The challenge takes on

The confirmations that come

Wave upon wave

Are the fuel that feeds

The flames of growth

The time is now

The place, everywhere

For all on Earth

Are within His care

The future I did see

Is becoming real before me

Blurring the lines between

What was, is, and will be

-Shiidon, Kamal 1, 171 BE

In a world of increasing sorrow and suffering it is easy to find hopelessness and fatalism.  The words that echo around the earth are "that's the way it is and that's the way it will always be."  This is nonsense.  We are a world that focuses on the profoundly negative.  We see and hear what is wrong over and over again.  I witnessed a fight on the street corner at work between two men who got out of their cars.  I yelled at them to stop.  Was I alone?  No!  There were many others that stepped up.  Do we look at the sadness of those fighting as would be the focus of the story these days or the positive that emerges from us all to do what is right.  I have written this poem from my perspective as a Bahá'í.  However, the positive energies that are emerging across the world are numerous and are not the purview of any one group but of humanity itself.