Keep Your Soul Poem by Sean C. Harrison

If fortunes turn for you, my child
I pray you'll learn its fickle ways
So as not to be beguiled
In its fleeting flight of days.
For over the untrained heart and eye
It weaves a blinding, golden veil
Takes you to the lofty sky
And tells you, you shall never fail.
But this remember in your flight:
Keep your soul with fervour, son
It shall be your guiding light
that anchors you when victory's won.

And when you face the starless night,
Storms roll in with unmatched wrath,
Their furies forcing you to fight
And trackless is your darkened path
Keep your soul in that grave hour
For only this your heart keeps;
To know in depth its awesome power
That rests your mind in peaceful sleep.

And when the dearest from you goes
In death or dearth and leaves you lonely,
Keep your soul for heaven knows
In depth your pain and heaven only.

For when all earthly glories fade
And you stand bare before your Lord
Stripped of fortunes you have made
And all your trials long and hard,
‘Tis how you weathered all these tests
That tells in part if you hear
"Well done. Enter now my rest"
Or there confirm man's darkest fear.

So keep your soul.
Guard well this prize.
Keep it pristine till you die
For only that will with your rise
From death secure a reward on high.