Poetry .. Life is in the living

Life is in the living

We spend a lifetime

Trying to pack a life

Into a life span

Only to find it does not fit

Our deeds always seem

To spill out and over

What we finish lives on

What we start continues

We never finish

If we were to look back

As we come to an end of a life

We would see life

Still rushing to catch us

For all of our care and planning

We are rarely ready

For the day

For the weekend

For the holidays

For the end of days

Herein is the end of it

We do what we can

While we can

And pray it is enough

We make the preparations we can

And wait for life to blindside us

At the last moment

With small details

Or the ‘big picture’

That we seemed to have missed

Still, at the end of the day

We look back

We thank the creator

For the love we have felt

For the tears we have cried

For the battles we have fought

We try to finish one more thing

Before we close our eyes

As if it might give us a head start

For the work of tomorrow

So ..

run ..

fight ..

strive ..

contend ..

Take whatever measure of success

You may find

Relish in it,

For it is fleeting at best

Life is in the living

Not in the obtaining

Life is in the trying

More so than in the achieving

Life is in the running

Everyone cannot be winning

Life is in the living

Live it

Ron Simpson, Jr.

December 29, 2009