(Inspired by War and Peace, Vol. 3, Part 1, Chapters 1–7)
A river does not choose its course to sea.
Winding across the plains, water discovers
its way—among gullies and hills encounters
a natural inevitability.
Nor does a seedling choose its path through earth
to sun. Sensing the pull of gravity,
it pushes upward—finding a destiny
of gaps between the clods that give it birth.
So, faced with each new moment, you and I
make our own choices—though what we choose is fixed
in our own natures and the arithmetics
of fate. Our needs and options minify
down to an instant’s narrow-focused glass—
our souls revealed by what we bring to pass.
—Lester Smith, 2011