Why, We Never Have to Leave

​Why, we never have to leave--
So you say--
The sweet, sweet light,
Even when the donkeys bray.

Yes, our mind can broaden
Just like that.
Never mind that our deeds grow flabby
And our sour disposition fat,

And our thoughts are crooked
And our makeup lean,
And our speech incompetent
And we’re unfit to be seen,

And we feel our weakness,
And we wail our woe,
Nevertheless—so you say--
We must do what we know

And cleave to the light
At the height of the tree,
And perhaps we can cling
To the best that we see.

If a shadow of dust,
If a curtain of sleep
Descends on our mind
And rank images creep,

You say we should know,
At the core of our core--
And I take it to heart--
That we only want life, the unopened door,

The beginning of love,
Of pleasure, of peace,
Of might and of balance,
An unopened valise.

Our crowded imagination,
Strewn with desire,
After all, carries
An invisible fire.

And if at times we are weak
Or humbled or broken
So our hands do not act
And our words stay unspoken,

That weakness—you say, 
And I take it as given— 
Comes from our will,
When we’re exhausted and driven.