Hard Knocks and Soft Answers

When the school of hard knocks meets
The study of soft answers
Then we can feel our heartbeats
In rhythm as the dancers
Who present this our ballet
Of shared human empathy
By which we are led to say
I feel you and you feel me

(What shall we say and what shall we do?
I move away yet closer to you)

We are all connected by
This web of propinquity
There to catch us when we fall
Not to mention your and my
Now-unfolding destiny
Which we share here after all
We are just the way we are
Together and yet lonely

(What shall we do and what shall we say?
We move closer though we move away)

Isolated like a star
In space as one and only
All and each so far apart
And yet all and each right here
Our shared rhythm of the heart
Felt from far brings us back near
When the school of hard knocks meets
The study of soft answers

+Steven Curtis Lance



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