It's in ourselves
It’s in Ourselves
By Rex Bunn 1970
It’s in ourselves, and not our stars
The ‘fate’ that locks us in like bars
And stows us on forgotten shelves
Just like our guts, is in ourselves.
No matter how we jump and dance
And blame life, luck and circumstance
When all our raving’s lad to rest
It’s we ourselves who failed the test.
It’s we, you see, who had the pick
Of when to move and when to stick
It’s we that laid aside the plough
And said, “Well, this’ll do for now.”
And like the mouse that drives the drum
And, purposeless, runs on to death
While prison gives us life and breadth
We’ll suffer it, and dodge the scrum.
Our hard-won affluence you see
Has made us compromise, and we
Who could be Gods, just shrug and sigh
And bumble on until we die.
This poem was written by one of my closest friends in the 1960s; a man who made a tremendous impact in my life for good.