TRUE YOU

for Parker Palmer

        Who is your true essential self—True You,
        Who by an older language is called soul,
        That innate destiny you must pursue
        If you would realize your fated goal?

        By such a reckoning we all are bound
        Upon a lifelong journey to find out
        The special purpose of our earthly round
        So often hidden in a mist of doubt.

        You might deny this all as poppycock,
        The superstitious musings of a fool
        Deserving to be made a laughingstock,
        Yet maybe common sense is not the rule:

             A higher law than reason may ordain
             The way lost souls can Paradise regain.

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