Perspcetives

The moving finger sometimes does go back,
Not to rewrite, but to reread;
And what was once dismissed, derided, mocked,
May, in the fullness of a moon or two,
Or even years,
Be hailed as wisdom,
spoken forthrightly at that earlier time,
And having needed courage
To face the obloquy of the others less perceptive,
Though burdened invective.

Remind yourself: A prophet's seldom praised
Before sunset,
of the day on which he first proclaimed
Unpalatable truths.
But if and when your truths
In the time become self-evident,
Their author vindicated,
Be, at that harvest moment, forgiving, gracious,
Broad of mind, large-purposed,
Amused by life's contrariness.

For not to all, only the few,
Are presbyopic gifts: long vision, clarity, sagacity,
By chance, through lottery at birth,
Bestowed by busy nature.

-"Karen Sloan"