Weakness’ Temptation

Guest writer Royce Hardin, my close friend and fellow traveller of the HIV road, returns this month to contribute a poem that he just penned. I hope that you will welcome his work with praise and feedback.

Ron Hudson

Give me strength
To keep my life whole
To journey with grace
The twisting hilly miles

Give me strength
To keep myself upright
With dignity
To honor love, life, calmness and truth

Give me the power
To keep myself on keel
Traversing seas tumult
Roiling, foamy brine
Waiting to pull me down

Give me grace
To honor my loves
With truth, dignity
A power strong

A flower frail
A breeze might destroy
Yet held upright and
Whole, unyielding to blustery gale

Proving the energy
Enveloping all with
Its mighty gentle embrace

Give me strength to
Prove my life whole
Worthy and strong

I feel pain unknown
A wrenching that claws
At my lungs, my limbs
Joints and heart

It gathers strength from an alien
Rapidly reproducing inside
Where not known

Fear creeps up
Without notice
Tugs at my will
Like the plucking of bass strings

I must not yield
To endure and fight
Is the power to prevail

Reposing in pity
Is an ugly Satyr
Serving only to sour
Causing pain needlessly

To falter
Leads down a path of
Darkness
Drags me deeper in pain
Sorrow and dourness

I must regain dignity
Power and joy – Strength
To yield to the dark
Is not an option

For without will
I yield only more
Losing honor and face

Rise above the pain
Held upright and strong

Remember the flower
Holding its own against
Nature’s fury, becoming one
With energy unknown.


Copyright 2006 William Royce Hardin. All rights reserved. Revised 4 January 2007.

Categories: poetry HIV AIDS HIV/AIDS guest+writer Royce+Hardin