At Last to Rest

When the night will fall forever,

Will you tell me what I’ve done?

When I lay me down at last to rest,

Will I see I’m not the only one

Who wonders what these steps have meant

On life’s uncertain, troubled shores?

The waves just go on crashing, sent

In peaceful times and raging wars,

Depositing unlucky creatures,

On the rocks and sand, perhaps, to die.

We tried to stop the waves,

But the force the fates supply

Was stronger than our mortal hands,

Unfit to face the unrelenting flow.

And so, we turned to those now stranded,

Struggling in the sun’s unshielded glow.

We gently sent them back,

Again to try the vast, uncertain sea.

Our footprints sank into the sand.

Repeated steps dug paths that we

Could use to guide us as we worked.

But all those treads have since been swept away

By time, its tidal pendulum

Has smoothed the marks our lives display.

At times, I stayed the course.

At others, I allowed myself to stray.

And as my spirit lies in wait,

I wonder what persists, what may

Affect the universe when I am gone?

Perhaps it’s more than I should ask,

Too proud a thing that I request.

Perhaps the current task

Is to look beyond the cosmic crest,

And to say I tried my best

And rest.


This seemed like an appropriate poem to post as the year nears its end. Occasionally, I can't help but contemplate what it means to live and die in this universe that feels, at times, so vast, and at others, so intimate. When I do, things like this poem usually come out.