Aspiration

We climb the slopes of life with throbbing heart,

And eager pulse, like children toward a star.

Sweet siren music cometh from afar,

To lure us on meanwhile. Responsive start

The nightingales to richer song than Art

Can ever teach. No passing shadows mar

Awhile the dewy skies; no inner jar

Of conflict bids us with our quest to part.

We see adown the distance, rainbow-arched,

What melting aisles of liquid light and bloom!

We hasten, tremulous, with lips all parched,

And eyes wide-stretched, nor dream of coming gloom.

Enough that something held almost divine

Within us ever stirs. Can we repine?