Given, Taken

Books unread
Prayers unsaid
Life unlived.

Gifts ungiven
Horses unridden
Poems unwritten.

Ideas gainsaid
Manuscripts unedited
Letters left for dead
Brilliance discredited.

Letters unsent
Speeches not delivered
Hearts unbent.

Thanksgiving not offered
Truth not proffered.

Beauty unkissed
Ugliness unhissed.

Too much
of
too little
for
too long
for
too many.

The Given
must be taken,
with appreciation,

then strongly shaken
until the music
comes bursting out.