<h2><SPAN name="poem34"></SPAN>HIGH NOON</h2>
<p class="poetry">Time’s finger on the dial of my life<br/>
Points to high noon! and yet the half-spent day<br/>
Leaves less than half remaining, for the dark,<br/>
Bleak shadows of the grave engulf the end.<br/>
To those who burn the candle to the stick,<br/>
The sputtering socket yields but little light.<br/>
Long life is sadder than an early death.<br/>
We cannot count on ravelled threads of age<br/>
Whereof to weave a fabric. We must use<br/>
The warp and woof the ready present yields<br/>
And toil while daylight lasts. When I bethink<br/>
How brief the past, the future, still more brief<br/>
Calls on to action, action! Not for me<br/>
Is time for retrospection or for dreams,<br/>
Not time for self-laudation or remorse.<br/>
Have I done nobly? Then I must not let<br/>
Dead yesterday unborn to-morrow shame.<br/>
Have I done wrong? Well, let the bitter taste<br/>
Of fruit that turned to ashes on my lip<br/>
Be my reminder in temptation’s hour,<br/>
And keep me silent when I would condemn.<br/>
Sometimes it takes the acid of a sin<br/>
To cleanse the clouded windows of our souls<br/>
So pity may shine through them.</p>
<p class="poetry"> Looking
back,<br/>
My faults and errors seem like stepping-stones<br/>
That led the way to knowledge of the truth<br/>
And made me value virtue; sorrows shine<br/>
In rainbow colours o’er the gulf of years,<br/>
Where lie forgotten pleasures.</p>
<p class="poetry"> Looking
forth,<br/>
Out to the western sky still bright with noon,<br/>
I feel well spurred and booted for the strife<br/>
That ends not till Nirvana is attained.</p>
<p class="poetry">Battling with fate, with men, and with
myself,<br/>
Up the steep summit of my life’s forenoon,<br/>
Three things I learned, three things of precious worth,<br/>
To guide and help me down the western slope.<br/>
I have learned how to pray, and toil, and save:<br/>
To pray for courage to receive what comes,<br/>
Knowing what comes to be divinely sent;<br/>
To toil for universal good, since thus<br/>
And only thus can good come unto me;<br/>
To save, by giving whatsoe’er I have<br/>
To those who have not—this alone is gain.</p>
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