Life
PURPOSELESS—life is so wayward and purposeless!
Always before us the object is shifting;
Always the means and the method are drifting.
We rue what is done; what is undone, deplore.
More striving for high things than things that are holy;
And so we go down to the valley so lowly,
Wherein there is work and device nevermore.
Vanity, vanity—all would be vanity,
Whether in seeking or getting our pleasures,
Whether in spending or hoarding our treasures,
Whether in indolence, whether in strife,
Whether in feasting, and whether in fasting,
But for our faith in the Love everlasting—
But for the life that is better than life.
Alice Cary