Risk: a Verse

To hope, to trust, to take a chance
 on someone else's word,
to take the floor and start to dance
 before the music's heard,
to follow courage to the brink
 although the fear is real,
to worry not what people think
 but value how they feel,
to speak the truth or gently lie
 when love has lost its way,
to recognize the need to cry
 and laugh another day
or secretly to wonder why,
 to foolishly forgive
or even be prepared to die
 and so learn how to live.

©2008 Steve Martin, www.coolrisk.com