Arts

The Life Waiting for Us
(For Joseph Campbell)

You are not living unless you
have at least one crisis before
breakfast. The crisis of adventure.

The crisis of receiving supernatural aid.
The crisis of not receiving it.
The crisis of meeting with the Goddess

and being spit on. Or being embraced like
a child. The crisis of faith that is not knowing
how much faith is enough, and when

faith becomes its own form of doubt. The crisis
of atonement with the Father. The crisis of returning
home again and again and again, until every person

knows that you left in the first place. The crisis of
not having a home to leave. The crisis of justice ringing
in your ear. The crisis of death on your footstep.

The crisis of losing the people in your life
that make it worth living. The crisis of the times and
the crisis of the past. The crisis of the storm brewing

even when it has already faded into the history books
of bored students. The crisis of boredom! The life we’ve
planned and the life waiting for us.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.