Providence Poem by gershon hepner

Though we may try,
we can’t defy
augury. There is a prov-
idence, as when we fall in love,
that’s due as much to hidden arrows
as falls that may befall poor sparrows.
Unplanned as many rhymes,
no one can leave betimes
the love that, if it is not now,
will come as soon as you allow
for providence to play the role
it must to score, with love, its goal.

Inspired by Hamlet’s words in Act V, Scene II, of “Hamlet, ” sent to me by Linda in response to a poem I wrote last year, “Mountains Do Not Go Away”:

Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special
providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he
leaves, what is't to leave betimes?

9/7/09