Passage Thirty-three: An Eagle Someday
Just newly hatched,
All elbows and eyeballs,
All gangly and wobbly,
A thing of wonder,
But not of beauty.
I may be an eagle someday,
But right now I feel
Ridiculous.
More than faith is needed
To learn to fly.
Enough time is needed.
Some use the spiritual
To achieve material ends.
I use the material
To achieve spiritual ends.
Nothing revolves around me,
But I can revolve
And circle and soar.
I think much of the world
Is in love with Sasha Cohen now.
The Torino Olympic Games
Are winding down,
And Sasha finished her competition
In figure skating two days ago.
She had given an exhilarating performance
In the short program,
And people were so happy for her.
Thursday night she fell and almost fell
In the first two jumps of her long program.
Then she was magnificent,
In more ways than one.
She did not give up,
When it would have been so easy to give up.
With courage and determination
She skated her best through the rest
And won the silver medal.
In time, she may come to feel more pride
In that performance and that prize
Than in a flawless one and gold.
Perhaps I look for that kind of example,
For that kind of inspiration,
Because I have so often fallen.
Impatience wants things
Out of place and out of time.
Love does not overlook, but sees
How things fit together and belong.
Patience does not wait
Until the time is right.
Patience tries and tries
Until the time comes.
