free-verse18 lines
If I Have Lived Before.
by Alfred Castner KingIf I have lived before, some evidence
Should that existence to the present bind;
Some innate inkling of experience
Should still imbue and permeate the mind,
If we, progressing, pass from state to state,
Or retrograde, as turns the wheel of fate.
If I have lived before, and could my eyes
But view the scenes wherein that life was spent,
Or even for an instant recognize
The climes, conditions and environment
Beloved by them in that pre-natal span,
Though past and future both be sealed to man;
Or, if perchance, kind memory should ope'
Her floodgates, with fond recollection fraught,
'Twould then renew the dormant fires of hope,
Now smothered out by speculative thought;
'Twould then rekindle faith within a breast,
Where doubt is now the sole remaining guest.