A Note on the Will

By Michael Yost

The will is movement of
    Itself, self-caused; both in the quick desire,
And in the glimpse of that which causes love;
    Be it a supple limb, the warmth of fire,        
Or mind and light above.

To see, in consequence,
    To understand; and on the understanding,
To weigh perceptions, known, with others; thence,
    It moves affections of the reason, branding    
The act with past’s stern tense.                                  

And yet, a quiet will  
    Suffuse all freedom—as long summer airs
Are cool in evening, on the porch, and still;
    Determined yet infirm, in all affairs,
Done well, unwell, or ill.

And yet a sometimes frantic              
    Fear may overcome the willing soul;
As there, incomprehensible, gigantic,
    Ahead looms its most necessary goal,
Like some uncrossed Atlantic.

Beyond ability,                                                        
    Its origin demands its final end,
Its death the place of its nativity;                        
    The which, if it will not, at last, ascend,         
Will end all liberty.

Published in New Lyre - Fall 2024

Michael Yost is a poet and essayist living in rural New Hampshire with his wife and children, as well as an alumnus and the Director of Admissions at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. He earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of St. Thomas in Houston Texas. His essays and poems have been published in places like The University Bookman, Dappled Things, Crisis Magazine, the St. Austin Review, The Brazen Head and Hearth and Field. Follow him on his Substack, The Weight of Form.