Against the Flow
Donald P. Goodman III
Version 1.0,
Do we congratulate a man for being born,
exult the wind for blowing, bell for giving ring?
The tree for making apples, stalk for making corn?
Or praise the fish for swimming, bird for taking wing?
Why then extol the leaf for floating with the stream
and following the current to the endless see?
Where water gathers, there the sun will brightly gleam;
where nature dwells, there nature's acts we'll ever see.
But we who move ourselves can fight against the flow,
and push ourselves upstream, to be what we must be;
no matter how the river fights us, we can row
until our proper end and home we come to know.