Shawn Michel de Montaigne - To Make an Assay

To Make an Assay

S hawn M ichelde M ontaigne

Copyright 2017 by Shawn Michel deMontaigne

Smashwords Edition

Thank you for supporting meand for respecting my hard work .

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The manuscript to
To Make an Assay
has been time-stamped

All rights reserved.

Cover designed by Shawn Michel deMontaigne

All photographs and artwork are by ShawnMichel de Montaigne
and are copyrighted to same.

Dedicated to my spiritualand philosophical touchstone,
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne.

To Make an Assay

CONTENTS
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Dear Lord,

Thank you for the tremble and weave,
For osprey tracing high the pine-scented air,
For silver sheets of rainfall fair;
Where orange rays of draining daylight conceive

These verdant hills and tumbling creeks whichsound
As through fluffs of cotton,
Through which this lonesome road winds forgotten;
Quiet walks remembered, and remembered I was found.

Thank you for this morning scene,
And fingers of fog lacing between,
For sudden bursts of golden finches, here now and thenunseen;
For the life of my spirit which refutes the mean.

I want to thank you for my poundingheart
And the urge to strengthen it,
For the courage to fight my sloth and recommit
To living this life not apart

From the grace of your love,
The warmth of which
These seconds enrich
And rain down from above.

Thank you, dear Lord,

For these sterling moments of peace
Amidst the cackle of the insane,
Their corrupting, deafening grain;
These pauses that cease

The unremitting insults of the day
Carried beyond the pale,
Varied but dull, and brittle like shale;
Each step as it may

A cry, a supplication all its own,
Offered with and over the swirl and roar so pure;
The susurration, the crossroad, the cure
Here at last! At last be shown

The glory be, unsayable!
Touching! Lifting!
Gleaming! Sifting
These certain steps between uncertain novations prayable!

Thank you for the courage of myconvictions
In this deluded and dangerous age;
For the friendship of the insistent Sage
And her reassuring valediction:

It isn't so bad, she says
This time, this space,
This darkness so many embrace.
They live in pieces,

But the glory of God is one.
Truth cannot forever be denied,
And those who lied
The commonwealth will someday shun.

Thank you, Lord,
For the constant urge to create,
For the insatiable desire to mate
The contradictions. Lo the sword

Proclaims its own art,
Deeper than desire, more intense than pain,
The blank numbness against which I refrain
Any measure of victory; in this I impart

The whole of my soul.
Never to death or dust
Shall it give; nor to rust
And the unworthy jewels it stole.

So to you, dear Lord, I offer this,
What meager and gritty quarry
Is mine to give; the words in the story
So imperfect, so imprecise, but sure as a kiss.

They're mine but also not:
They're yours, truly, like this day, this moment, only mine bygift.
Thus is my wish to uplift,
But back to you, in the end, goes the entire lot.

In them and by them I have soared,
Through them and with them my heart has at last come alive.
So long afraid, so long merely to survive ...
Alive again, and so it sings: Thank you, dear Lord.

Posted February 2016
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Apropos, I think, for all of us, who nowmust
stand against a vile Trump presidency

I WAS fifteen years old when I became aDenver Broncos fan.

54 - 15 = 39. Years .

That's an astonishing amount of time to be afan of anything. But it's true. For almost forty years I havefaithfully followed that team and their fortunes and misfortunes. Ihave jumped for joy at their triumphs and have been crushed bytheir defeats.

Just this last weekend the Denver Broncosdefeated the New England Patriots to advance to Super Bowl 50,their eighth trip to the biggest stage in American sports. Theyhave won twice while on it. The last time they went, which was justtwo years ago, they were humiliated by the Seattle Seahawks 43 - 8.I stopped watching sometime in the third quarter.

The pundits are predicting an equal orgreater butt-kicking this go-round at the hands of the CarolinaPanthers, whose 17 - 1 record has everybody convinced that they'revirtually unbeatable.

Maybe they are. I don't know.

The Broncos were supposed to becrushed by the New England Patriots too. Instead they did thecrushing, harassing and dominating the Patriots' offense and itsstellar quarterback the entire day. The pundits, instead ofadmitting their horrible predictions and analyses, immediatelyjumped on the Panthers' bandwagon and are now saying the samethings they were saying last week. "The Panthers are unstoppable.""The Broncos stand no chance for reasons x , y , and z ." And so on.

The Broncos might as well not even show upto the game!

I guess what I'm getting athere is that when the chips are down, that few who claim to standfor the very qualities that got the Broncos to the greatest stagein American sportscamaraderie, playing for something greater thanthemselves, belief in each other, sacrifice, devotion, friendship,faith, perseverance, loyalty, teamwork actually do. Most people abandon themwholesale. Even worse, they deride those who continue to cling tothem as "naive" or "foolish" or for "wearing rose-coloredglasses."

The thing is, though, a lifeworth livinga life worth a damnis only possible for those who actuallystand up for those qualities, especially come hell or high water.Spout doom-laden statistics all you want, cough up nastyprobabilities, declare your team totally screwed, chunter on thatyour dreams are "unrealistic," refuse to stand and face the fire,divest yourself of your fandom, detach your emotions and spiritfrom the outcome because you believe it to be hopeless and fearfailure, turn your back on the possibility of the great victory,and you will join that long, gray line of human mediocrity, toparaphrase Colonel Frank Slade in Scent ofa Woman . As a bonus, you will do great andlasting damage to your spirit.

The Denver Broncos stand no chance against avastly superior foe on February 7.

I stand no chance to be a recognized andpopular author.

Your dream of becoming whatever your hearttruly wants you to be is silly and should be ignored.

At bottom, there is no significantdifference between those three statements. I can choose to believethem, citing statistics and probabilities until the cows come home;or I can ignore the pundits and predictors and prognosticators andpress on. So can you.

That's what the Denver Broncos are doing;and that's what I've been doing for thirteen years now, and whatI'll continue doing.

What are you doing to preparefor victory at your "Super Bowl"?

I refuse to join that awful gray line whereso many reside. No matter what.

Go Broncos!*

Go me!

And go you!

* Myforty-year fandom of the Denver Broncos has come to an end. Heres why .

(For a hero)

In that moment the light will gray.
Beyond it you will see an arch.
Fear it not.
There is nothing past it you need cower before.
It is yours to use as you see fit.
Once an instrument of supreme evil,
you may employ it for the supreme good.

Beyond it is your destiny.
But do not confuse what I am telling you.