“I Am Forever Dawning”

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"You are forever dawning," and that truth is always here,

The world we built keeps dimming it, replacing awe with fear.

Yet the truth of who you are declares it clearly by its name,

"You are forever dawning," alive forever in life's open flame.

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"I am forever dawning," I declare it from my soul,

Not naivete, not fantasy, not playing any role.

Each morning breaks to the world that is there, brand new and bold,

All that lies before me is my awesome story to unfold.

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"I am forever dawning, I am forever dawning,"

Not a phase, not a season, not the past returning.

Before the world installed its verdict of how much of life remains,

"I am forever dawning," alive forever in life’s open flame.
 

Then came the House of Good and Bad with its relentless score,

With blame the stick and praise the carrot, with survival at its core.

Not a danger to the body, but the threat of being found,

Unworthy of approval, cast out, or run aground.
 

Your open sky of childhood closed to just one narrow lane,

Your mornings no longer glorious, your burdens you sustain.

Your horizon once so luminous, now your ledger you must keep,

And something you can't quite name is what makes you quietly weep.
 

At eighty-one this feeling lives as fresh as it did at three,

The years behind me change nothing of the fire alive in me.

Each morning I feel certain that my life's just starting here,

My story's just unfolding, my horizon’s bright and clear.

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But the dawning never left you, it was never gone to sleep,

Still alive beneath the ledger, still alive beneath the weep.

No content fills this knowing, nothing yet needs a name,

Your future still is beckoning, an ever-burning flame.

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"We are forever dawning," though most have yet to know,

Still trading in their mornings for the burdens of the show.

I hold it for the others who have let their knowing dim,

The truth that life keeps dawning, flowing over at the brim.

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"I am forever dawning, I am forever dawning,"

Not a phase, not a season, not the past returning.

Before the world installed its verdict of how much of life remains,

"I am forever dawning," alive forever in life’s open flame.