Existential Rhyme

Why have friends so young departed,
leaving hopes and projects that they started,
symphonies begun and then undone?
Why this absence of Eleison?

How is it that I have so long survived?
By grace -- not virtue -- have I thrived.
How many lives await me? Nine like cats?
Serene adventures in exotic habitats?

To think I could have died so long ago,
so many close calls, touch and go.
I could have gone, my worries would have ended,
works, objectives, vanities left unattended…

I could have died a child, an adolescent,
young adult, mature professional -- and now senescent ...
Embolisms, dual pneumonias, road collisions,
any could have sealed my missions and ambitions ...

Much that was would not have been,
inspiring concerts heard, impressive rainbows seen,
few heartaches suffered, prizes won or lost,
the summits climbed and rivers crossed.

Existence after trauma is indeed rebirth,
a second chance to kiss the native earth,
to take perspective from what lies behind,
revise priorities to foster what is good and kind.

Now I perceive familiar things as truly awesome:
Pine cones, apple trees, a cherry blossom...
Simple things so wondrously complex:  a leaf,
a blade of grass, hibiscus petals quite beyond belief.

I live in gratitude for all these bonus years,
reborn each morning, savouring the joys and tears
with optimism, cultivating friendship, settling strife,
so keenly conscious of this daily gift of life.

Beholden for the bounties of extended time,
I sing the sights, the sounds, the smells in existential rhyme,
devoting time for building bridges, climbing mountain crests,
still laughing at my new infatuations, whims and quests ....

I revel in the funny details of each day and night,
seize carpe diem, carpe noctem with delight.
I know no taedium vitae -- so much to discover still,
each day a new epiphany -- by Heaven's will.