He That Will Not

Like in the post ‘Confucius Expanded,’ the prompt for this one became the first line of the poem. Many times, when I first hear a quote used as a prompt, my mind takes it out a little farther. Some times it becomes a poem, but many times it ultimately becomes something else. This one could  become nothing else but a poem. The prompt was, ‘He that will not when he may.’

This one is also incomplete, so it ends very abruptly. It was a short writing period (about 5 minutes), and I drew a short straw, so to speak, in the reading order.

He that will not when he may

When he would shall have nay

For when the chance comes to the door

It knocks but once and then no more

Invite it in and win or lose

Lose the chance you have to choose

And be driven through life by random fate

I don’t know how many more lines would have come. I plan to do some work on my poetry collection once my novel manuscript is done.