Strive ceaselessly and reap your just returns.
Good fortune is a dance for earth and you.
He is not living who no longer yearns.
Happy, the man who ever seeks and learns;
His way is brighter for each fact and clue.
Strive ceaselessly and reap your just returns.
The rock, though peaceful, never knows, discerns
The aim that its trajectory pursues:
He is not living who no longer yearns.
To know, to act. Such active knowledge earns
Prosperity that blooms for but a few.
Strive ceaselessly and reap your just returns.
The flame of life is longing and it burns,
And when it seems to die, it springs anew.
He is not living who no longer yearns.
To want, to search, to know—the cycle turns—
To act, to take, and then to want anew.
Strive ceaselessly and reap your just returns.
He is not living who no longer yearns.
George Chadderdon © 1996