Looking Out from the Deck and Philosophical Dances

By Andrew R. Duckworth

The good and the bad,
Side by side, the good, the bad,
Things unfair that breed despair,
They were written before,
Shall be written again
Before the end of what is sin—
Suffering will breed suffering,
And strife breed strife
Before our ascent to eternal life.
The good and the bad,
Side by side, the good, the bad,
All foreknown before time’s birth
By One Great Giver giving worth
To otherwise worthless wilds.
Side by side, they wrestle,
The splinters prick the fruit
But the fruit bleeds sweet
Before the harvesting of wheat.
The thorns can tear and shred,
Leave the hardest of men for dead.
But good can come and make clean
The deepest wounds, often unseen,
Loving hands from loving Lord
Who makes all things new,
Who gives the gift of Grace.
Side by side, the good, the bad—
A dance only made graceful
By good and good’s emergence
From the weight of passing storms
That make the sunset’s rays
Even more pleasant when the water
Calms and the clouds part
And the sky glows orange
And the stars begin to glimmer,
The horizon forever stretching,
Mind and soul reaching
To grasp unseen lands of beauty—
The good, the good,
Breathing in the good.