Life's Tragedy Poem by john tiong chunghoo

i am water
swept by the wind
to become waves
i am a consciousness
swept by god
to become man
inundated by
waves of
trials and tribulations
swirling, crushing,
always rushing onward to shore
soldiers on field
advancing to claim
a piece of victory they
consider theirs
the sand a smooth plain
after each swipe of the waves
i leap on towards this survival
again and again
pondering over the meaning
of this breath, life, miracle,
a blank in my life
i beg god would fill out for me
those masterful footsteps
in my life
those guiding steps on
the beach after each lap of wave
that i am still waiting for

inspired by

Life's Tragedy
It may be misery not to sing at all,
And to go silent through the brimming day;
It may be misery never to be loved,
But deeper griefs than these beset the way.
To sing the perfect song,
And by a half-tone lost the key,
There the potent sorrow, there the grief,
The pale, sad staring of Life's Tragedy.
To have come near to the perfect love,
Not the hot passion of untempered youth,
But that which lies aside its vanity,
And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.
This, this indeed is to be accursed,
For if we mortals love, or if we sing,
We count our joys not by what we have,
But by what kept us from that perfect thing.
Paul Laurence Dunbar