The Hamssa is an Israeli symbol for luck. Photo by Ronit Geller.
A father sees a son nearing manhood.
What shall he tell that son?
“Life is hard; be steel; be rock.”
And this might stand him for the storms
and serve him amid sudden betrayals
and tighten him for slack moments.
“Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.”
And this too might serve him.
Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed.
The growth of a frail flower in a path up
has sometimes shattered and split a rock.
A tough will counts. So does desire.
So does a rich soft wanting.
Without rich wanting nothing arrives.
Tell him too much money has killed men
and left them dead years before burial:
the quest of lucre beyond a few easy needs
has twisted good enough men
sometimes into dry thwarted worms.
Tell him time as a stuff can be wasted.
Tell him to be a fool every so often
and to have no shame over having been a fool
yet learning something out of every folly
hoping to repeat none of the cheap follies
thus arriving at intimate understanding
of a world numbering fools.
Tell him to be alone often and get at himself
whatever the white lies and protective fronts
he may use amongst other people.
Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong
and the final decisions are made in silent rooms.
Tell him to be different from other people
if it comes natural and easy being different.
Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives.
Let him seek deep for where he is born natural.
Then
he may understand Shakespeare
and
the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov,
Michael
Faraday and free imaginations
bringing changes into a world resenting changes.
He
will be lonely enough
to
have time for the work
he
knows as his own.
Carl Sandburg, from The People, Yes
