Andrew Kern

A Pace to Live By

At the human pace
You and I can act and rest,
labour and loaf,
strive and relax.

We can learn
to read,
to work,
to produce,
to grow,
at the human pace

At the human pace
we overcome
anxiety

At the human pace
We hear ancestral voices
calling from afar

When we hear
At the human pace
we hear past reverberating echoes
in our caves

We are still
So the self-reflecting words
are still
And world-creating words
can speak

In the stillness

By Andrew Kern
Used by permission