The Priest Poem by Barry Middleton

Now even priests have many doubts,
so one came back to earth to see,
he feared he failed to make his mark,
on how the world turned out to be.

Although a priest is just a man,
and fallible like other men,
his hopes had soared when he was young,
he dreamed a world that might have been.

But he would glimpse a different view,
confusion took him on a ride,
where everything he thought he knew,
lay strewn upon a mountainside.

The rubble of humanity,
that fell so short of precious dreams,
lay bent and broken on the rocks,
and yet still clutching long dead schemes.

The priest could see the cruelty there,
betraying innocence and youth,
the pride and greed of human flesh,
where lies concealed a higher truth.

He felt that he had failed mankind,
for it had been his job to teach,
to show which path to take in life,
he thought that all he did was preach.

"I should have pointed out the way,
and led them to the promised land."
He wept and begged forgiving grace,
for this is not what he had planned.

Then came a voice beyond the clouds,
that said, "I know you did your best,
you led, they did not follow you.
You passed my each and every test.

Men have a choice a priest can't change,
you showed the way for them to go,
the fork in every path's a test,
one road is high, one road is low."

Now many of you know this man,
and some will believe he was a god,
he's gone by many names it seems,
since first he touched this earthly sod.

And I am just a bit like him,
I dream a world that might have been,
I grieve for mine and all our faults,
within the scope of fear and sin.

But like the priest I did my best,
I often fell or missed my turn,
all men are lost upon this earth,
it seems that we must die to learn.