Tis Times Like These That Try One's Patience

Tis times like these that try one's patience
When the many trivialities of life seem to be on the rise
Surely all is not as it ought to be
Yet in such moments one finds all passions for protest declined

What strength is there found in this
When all efforts are futile and foolish
The inopportunity causes a void within
To pause and consider the interests of men

Yea many are self-conceited and vain
And have little if nothing to gain
For pride is a fortified city of trust
Built by its own ambitions and wills

Yet for all its thrills
Once offered then
Canst hide itself from
Its arrogant sin

For trust in oneself
Becomes one's undoing
If all its pursuing
Is only itself

And when that must cease
At last shall come peace
Yet not without a cost
And a sacrifice made

For humility must come
If anything is to be done
There's hope still in view
If this fragile soul would
But gain a clue

For all is not made
By one's own hands
But by one who formed them
For His own plans

And wise is the man
Who knows it when young
For time hath a way
Of making one dumb

-Joshua Lee Foist

Of these unpleasant days

Of these unpleasant days
When ill forgotten thoughts
Come to graze

Twas once far off
And lost at sea
In a world
Of my own imagining

Yet the ache of life
At last reborn
The scorn within
My head adorn

This sin and shame
I bear once more
The youth of me
Again returns

And hearts that yearn
To be as then
Now fixed as now
In this forgotten place

A dream a dream
Twas once of thee
Of beauty and serenity
When hope did long

Upon thy every song
Where poems did lie
Of thy one desire

Retire the thoughts
Of yesteryear
To fear they may
Ne'er come again

Why waste this life
On broken dreams
Should cast them from
Thy idle mind

And find thy faith
Amidst thy fallen way
May come today
May come awhile yet still

Though all the thrill
Has fled and gone
Still look upon

The endless pool
The mind a fool
Did torture and rule

No more shall be
Cast doubt and fear
And all despair

For one is there
Who knows all pain
Hath bore it too
And more than you

Shall carry thee
Thine own
Depravity

Into that all forsaken land
And pull thee through
To wonders thee never knew

A world of hope
That lies ahead
That trusts

Thy tender touch
Doth comfort all
From sorrows great
And small

-Joshua Lee Foist

There are but days

There are but days
To throw this mad facade
Away twould be yet still
A pleasant mystery

If to be gone
From this great old world
Where tomorrows never done
For the days are but begun

Truth reveals the lies
That oft hide between the eyes
And show them for who
The me and you really are

So cast away
This shooting star
To shine down upon
The earth afar

Below shall we yet know
There is a light
That shines
Across the darkened night

Oh to but sing
Of thy joys shall bring
When all is as it truly
Should be

Shall see shall see
We when gone the worries
From them shall flee

And fade from our view
When just a world
Of you

All bright and new
This glorious
Road ahead

The path untread
Of where we'll be
Eternity

And most grand
Twill be
In thy long lost
Love

At rest and peace
From all strife and shame
When at last shall welcome us
By name

-Joshua Lee Foist