Prudence: to look ahead without flinching
and make plans
stand still in the night doing nothing
but breathing
yet anticipating everything.
Temperance: to be able to imagine excess
yet pledge never to leave moderation’s
shallows
renounce the self’s intoxication
learn to love the empty shelf.
Justice: to affect knowledge of right
and wrong
to believe the impossible
that it is possible that what is
fair might for once precede despair.
Fortitude: to achieve it in that darkness
where you and shadow
play hide and seek
sieve life of its impurities
learn your losses and endure.
Charity: to give without any expectation
of reward
practise agape
fling love or coins over your shoulder
and never look back
Hope: to risk all on the remote chance
good might prevail
set sail at midnight for the moon
forget that voyages sometimes fail
sometimes end too soon
Faith: to tear up reason’s agreement
and risk all
gamble
find more happiness in trust
than unanswered questions that come to dust.