Stepping to Eternity

Stepping to Eternity

Frank Sharratt

My step renews in an autumnal chill,
Anticipation flies from my cold lungs,
The sound of progress harkens on nearby,
Rumble modernity, the modern thrill,

How far shall this new companionship ride?
How strong is the verse? How quick is the hound?
Outstrip the hearse, beat the death rattle sound!

There is immortality in the mortal,
There is a victory in defeat,
When I step at one in knowing woods and trees,
I fall high to Eternity’s seat,

There is an old wisdom in the very young,
There is naivety in the wise,
When I walk at peace, slow beside the ailing,
I see their strength written above skies,

There is vapidity in smug professors,
Those Untrue confessors that wrought nought,
When I step towards those growing boundless fields,
I see the sword that fair Nature sought,

I wandered as joyful as the hound,
That conquers the paths of tomorrow,
I know rapture in shores that make no sound,
That this wisdom was just theirs to borrow.

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Frank Sharratt
Poet & Healthcare Worker

Frank is on the NHS Leadership Scheme and is working in the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. He has been shortlisted in the inaugural Soldier’s Arts Academy International Poetry Competition with “The Defence of the Good Valiant Soldier”. He began writing poetry in the Summer of 2021 and is looking to build a first collection.

Photography by Brad Fickeisen