The Meeting of Tomorrow

By Ruth Mayer Stewart

How can a world that's full of odious strife
Bring joy unto the everlasting soul?
How can we meet with merry laughter, Life
Who stole our hearts as careless errors' toll
For all the blunders doubting mortals make
While disobeying sacred words He spoke?
To Him who knows, our deeds must seem opaque.
Can muddled minds like ours remain unbroke?
We must be brave, survive and carry on
Upon our strength all future life depends.
We've had our cruel prolegomenon,
And now we have to cease our heedless trends
Of putting off the things that are of weight
And thus attain the goal which is our fate.

Copyright 1943, 2000, Ruth M. Stewart

RUTH WRITES: This poem won first prize in the Laura Pratt Strang memorial contest at East High in 1943. My prize was a William Saroyan book. Although I think I started being agnostic or atheist at that time, I guess I was so upset about WWII that I felt I had to get "God" into the act. I used the sonnet format because I wanted to do something different. I found the word "prolegomenon" in my mother's thesaurus and used it because it fit. It means "prologue."

Tell Ruth Mayer Stewart what you think of her poem!

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