The Pride of Not Trying

September 25, 2005

A fool (and a prideful one),

"Prays from his heart," and never prays from the Psalms
"Charts his own course," and is never asks for a mentor,
"Just messes around" on the guitar, never learns a single chord progression,
"Dabbles in poetry" and knows not the themes of Homer, Dante, Eliot, Whitman;

But,

To defer to the priest ("Oh, he speaks Latin,")
To follow always the advice of the teacher,
To listen only to Bach, Beethoven, Mozart,
To ingest and ingest the most glorious beauty of ages past,

Is the trap of the slyly-blinded beggar,
who, in refusing to be pretend to be a glorious king,
refuses to actually be a so-so father.

Even if your devotion,
your critical analysis,
your musical stylings,
your poetic diction

sucks,


Pray.
Think.
Play.
Write.


Glory to God alone.