Put Away Childish Things

Put away childish things yet keep the childlike wonder. Though dreams be rent asunder our wishes still have wings. Put away childish speech but not the constant queries that question rooted theories which reason cannot reach. Put away childish ken, though artless ways of seeing in any age of being will find a poet’s pen. Put away childish thought yet not imagination which sparks our inspiration beyond what we are taught. Put away childish things but follow deepest desires. Those secret innermost fires burn brighter as hope sings. Put away childish whim yet not delight in playing, then when the world’s dismaying, our days won’t seem so grim. Put away childish fears. Nonetheless, through thick and thin hang on to the child within, the laughter and the tears, all the livelong years… Put away childish things. While our dusty death is nigh, the utter self shall not die, and karmic kismet clings. Put away childish things, though then in mirror darkly we face our image starkly, plus suffer destined slings. Put away childish pain yet not sensations tender for sunset’s golden splendor or soothing thrum of rain, therein the simple joys remain… Nor questing spirit ever lose, while on the pathway that we choose, neither from love refrain which makes a heaven of earth’s domain. Still, throughout, with faith unshaken, seek enlightenment to waken, thus the bliss supreme to gain, plus not to live and die in vain… Put away childish things but hold to yearning youthful to grasp the learning truthful which timeless wisdom brings. Put away childish things, and embrace the peerless state of illumined grace innate wherefrom great fortune springs! ~ Harley White * * * * * * * * * The following well-known quotation provided the initial literary inspiration for the poem… “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, darkly, but then face to face.” 1 Corinthians 13 ~ The New King James Version (NKJV) translation of the Bible Further inspiration derived from the teachings and writings of Nichiren Daishonin, as well as Martin Bradley’s interpretative writings about them…