Patience is my salvation, on days that are long and willfulness all aflutter...

Patience is my salvation
On days that are long and willfulness all aflutter
Patience is my savior on days I have nothing left but begging to the moon and all of the inhabitants of the celestial plateau
For the fourth dimension to speed its process
Here I am bare
Bereft of all there has been
Just my bones and I
Self and this series of stationary bones
Waiting for the shifting
The unnoticeable movement of one era into another
The confusion
If the past is now and the present past and the future here and where am I in all these directions?
Am I here?
Am I there now?
If I am, then what is the waiting for?
And where is the quickening of my soul into the space christened joy? •

We must be patient for progress. No one is successful on the first try. And if no one ever gives up, everyone will end up becoming successful in the end. We and hard work have to be in a long-term relationship. There will be sunshine, and many times there will be rain. Can you withstand the storms? If you can sit beneath the sky drenched with no umbrella, and dance nonetheless - just as you dance in sunlight - then you know you can succeed. You have to take the grey along with the yellow. Because no one succeeds on the first try - there will be many trials, and you have to quiet that voice inside that may tell you to quit when you become frustrated.
Just as Maya Angelou said, if a human did a thing, and you also are a human, then you can do it as well. If someone has already done it, so can you. And if no one has ever done the thing you set out to do, you can show future generations how it is done, once you succeed. And you will, succeed. •

Poem from Acres of Shadow
© Aisha Tariqa Abdul Haqq Publishing
Follow @AishaTariqa for more original poetry and inspiration •