This handful of words

This handful of words                                                                               
 
One day I’ll forfeit these numberless lifetimes
(You say) for an abrupt end to my human adventure,
 
obliterate myself and all of Creation as I have known it,
but today I cling (instead) to this sad world,
 
this handful of words,
head teeming with worthless ideas,
 
a heart empty of courage and will,
the authority and sincerity
 
to shape the one-syllabled cry that would
awaken within me the sleeping God –
 
exchange this timeworn, familiar realm  
for the glory-promised, new Unknown.
 
O child of God, your obsessive talk of liberation
is part of God’s readying you to receive it.