I place my hand to the wily winds <br />and shudder impending adversity <br />retrieve courage from its own fiery ashes, <br />cleave hope from negativity splinterings. <br /> <br />All this because of you. <br /> <br />I have walked in darkest night <br />guided by the slenderest sliver of faintly light <br />! 've cast my net upon unwelcoming seas <br />crashed onto rocky shoals <br />capsized my dingy <br />lost my compass <br />drank too much <br />hurt myself and others <br />and yet <br />emerged from the darkest caves here lately <br />lit only by <br />your love of me. <br /> <br />I've stood naked dressed only in my own dark resolve, <br />I've been blinded by my own arrogance, <br />my own destructive drive <br />my finger nail clingings <br />to wild dreams <br />and depressive drives <br />yet <br />surprised my self <br />when I found a place to stand <br />here and now given me by you. <br /> <br />Lay me down with gratitude <br />for gratitude so often <br />has to be born from Humility's Bludgeonings <br />and Life's Reckonings <br />where kindness now has blanked out bad memories <br />I am better off without. <br /> <br />The Ultimate Folly, and there are many, <br />is to imagine that life can be lived alone. <br /> <br /> <br />So take this battered hand <br />as you have so often in the past <br />place upon it that gentle touch <br />allowing it to receive <br />my last and final sacrament. <br />Sorry <br />it has taken this long <br />and has to be received <br /> <br />on this my Dying Bed <br />not sooner <br />when it could have had <br />longer life <br />and more meaningfulness.<br /><br />Lonnie Hicks<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-poet-dies/
