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Poem: “Quick to Live”

by on Sep 27, 2011 in Poetry
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Quick to Live
For Alys Thorpe

Quick to live and quick to die,
That’s how we live say you and I,
But even mountains crumble fast
Stone can flow and time is vast

Look with some asperity:
They are like rollers on a sea,
They fall in eons of explosion,
Shore-bound breakers in slow motion

A crow that walks the telephone wire
Has all the life it can desire,
If it be wild it has no name
Or knows it not if it is tame

All are lost in this great sea,
Mountains, crows and you and me,
Man, stand far away and look,
This is the view the wisest took

But someone said he saw a place
As big as time, and wide as space,
Within were chapels, candle-sticks,
And all had flames that stood on wicks

Although they burned were not consumed
In that enormous God-lit room,
For One who loves will not submit
To hopelessness or yield to it

Love is wider than the sea
And longer than eternity,
For while a soul has lost its way
The candle burns and He will stay

Pavel
April 19, 2011


Pavel Chichikov is a Washington DC-based poet and photographer. He has written for both the secular and the Catholic press on issues as diverse as Russian nuclear weapons systems, Olympic athletes, and miracles. His books include From Here to Babylon: Poems by Pavel Chichikov,  Lion Sun: Poems by Pavel Chichikov, Mysteries and Stations in the Manner of Ignatius, and Animal Kingdom. Pavel may be heard reading his works on catholicradiointernational.com and on pavelreads.com. His poetry regularly appears on "The Poetry of Pavel Chichikov."