AN ODE TO PATIENCE:editor’s choice

AN ODE TO PATIENCE


Patience, a real virtue,
Has in life many a hue.
It saves us from daily strife
And ensures a peaceful life.

What patience of the toddler,
Being coaxed on by the mother!
Trying to walk a moment
He takes a step hesitant.

He falls but gets up again,
Moves ahead, forgets all pain.
When he sees her cheering smile
He thinks he has run a mile.

What patience of the sweet girl
Settling her doll’s every curl!
Smoothing each crease of her frock,
She is overcome by shock

If her tiny plastic face
Has, of dirt, the slightest trace.
All she wants is that her doll
Be judged the fairest of all.

What patience, a sweetheart dear,
Is courted for full one year!
She waits for that single word,
That would truly change her world.

But, alas! Without patience,
Marriage soon loses fragrance.
They can’t bear now each other.
Can’t even be together!

O Patience! Our precious gift!
You save from going adrift.
Painful would have been our lot
Had we, Patience, known you not.

Let us, to God, humbly pray,
And to Him simply this say:
‘Lord, bestow on us patience,
Thy spirit of tolerance”.


* Writen in aa bb 7-7-7-7 format.
* Included as Editor’s choice in Spiritual newsletter dated April 2005 and 25 September 2008.


M C Gupta
5 October 2003