Poem: “Chance”

by Thomas A. Flynn, LC on Nov 09, 2011 in Poetry

Chance

I’ve heard some men of a wiser lot
Assert the premise that all was naught;
That man and woman, bird and beast
Were plucked by chance, and by chance deceased.

That life is chance, and a chance but one,
So live it up before you’re done.
But might I chance to question them,
Haven’t you seen a precious gem?

Or looked upon the sun descend,
When amber, copper, and blue do blend?
Right at that moment, and in that spot,
A chance you say? Well I think not.

Have you ever had a loved one’s life
Be spared from sudden death or strife
In the flash of a second, the nick of time?
“Yes, that too is a chance”, they mime.

Now they with precise arithmetic
Dissect the world and every tick
Of time and day and month and year
To prove to us their theory dear.

Nor room have they for providence
In grandiose schemes of luck and chance,
But I would rather in faith depend
Then take the chance of these learned men.

For I have seen those precious gems
Stand out like providential stems,
Connecting every nook and hap
Revealing thus Salvation’s map.

And chance so praised by learned men
Before the Lord its knees now bend.
For all the haps in chance contained
Were made by God and thus sustained.

Fr. Thomas Flynn, LC