To Nick
(a friend diagnosed with Parkinsons)
(‘How unlucky I am, that this should have happenedto me! By no means; say rather, ‘How lucky I am, that ithas left me with no bitterness; unshaken by the present,and undismayed by the future.’) Marcus Aurelius
Austere, perhaps, but noble wordsFrom this last of the Stoics -Yet how much beyond us,As the mysterious moon was to him,Lies the prize of a contemplative mindAccepting the judgment of mindless fate?
And even those who learn might cry: too late –Too late have I seen my life was a dream,And my words, too often, like the wordsUttered in sleep - dead leavesBlown away by the wind.
But you have faced a fate undeserved,Uncalled for and unwanted -And accepted like a lesser manMight face the inconvenient rain.
The Emperor would have been proud to know you.