chapter 36 Decision time
In isolated places may a hero spend a while,
Spun by mazing troubles as he sorts coherent thread,
Lords have sought the desert, hermits walked a thorny mile,
And lesser men by stuff of mediocrity are led.
Now I faced my knowledge of this battered self I've worn
Distressed by what I saw of me, but focused and reborn.
Oh, ashes of these memories, of foolishness and faith,
Forever might I wander in pursuit of glamoured wraith.
Revelation of my blind and self-deluding game
Echoed through my blurring sight reflected in the stream,
Flurried ripples might endorse uncertainty and shame
Lest unprotected fantasies should rise and make me dream.
Errors in perception? I would fight them on the road,
Correcting in my cognisance their glimmer as it flowed.
'Tom Journeyman,' I said aloud, 'decision time is here!
'In all your worthless lifetime, you have wavered in the tide,
'Onward, now, and put your questions, forge a passage clear
'Never doubt your duty, to your manhood and your bride.'
Spun by mazing troubles as he sorts coherent thread,
Lords have sought the desert, hermits walked a thorny mile,
And lesser men by stuff of mediocrity are led.
Now I faced my knowledge of this battered self I've worn
Distressed by what I saw of me, but focused and reborn.
Oh, ashes of these memories, of foolishness and faith,
Forever might I wander in pursuit of glamoured wraith.
Revelation of my blind and self-deluding game
Echoed through my blurring sight reflected in the stream,
Flurried ripples might endorse uncertainty and shame
Lest unprotected fantasies should rise and make me dream.
Errors in perception? I would fight them on the road,
Correcting in my cognisance their glimmer as it flowed.
'Tom Journeyman,' I said aloud, 'decision time is here!
'In all your worthless lifetime, you have wavered in the tide,
'Onward, now, and put your questions, forge a passage clear
'Never doubt your duty, to your manhood and your bride.'