And only warriors taste defeat Or mirror their freedom

And only warriors taste defeat
Or mirror their freedom’s prison
In dust and common talk repleat
With pleasing victor’s vision.

And only lovers endure heartbreak
Or yearn through age defying
Barriers proper reason take
A path to shun our dying.

And only quickened souls do die
The death in waking to a day
That builds no honor to the high
Where giving men find their way.

Most are pleased to price their joy
That comes in hope’s long hope
Gathering in life’s alloy
Strength with which to cope.

Only the helpless have felt the power
Or become risen innocent’s grave
As they have seen in time’s long hour
What’s lost the heart can save.

Only the mindful have oft’ been swept
Beyond the sea and wind’s full fury
To gather wreckage order once kept
In knowing peace sans care or hurry.

The most they live in smaller gains
And smaller pinnacles of fame
Love they give as fee for pains
Resolved, removed, hidden for the tame.

And only the wise know the lost
And recognize they can’t be used
They can’t be made to pay the cost
Of passion, will or history abused.

For it is the whole in one alone
As it adds up to the race
That builds the view, the mount, the throne
That sets survival’s pace.