The Golden Key
by Joseph Patrick RogersI walked along the broken road
Toward where I thought that I should be.
I sought not truth nor goodness.
I sought not the golden key.
One day, while on that road,
A fellow traveler posed this question to me:
“Tell me, sir, if you can,
Where is the silver tree?
Does it lie around that bend?
Is the silver tree nearby?
It is urgent that I find it --
As urgent as can be!
Please help me find the silver tree!”
I knew not what to tell the woman.
I knew not where the tree could be found.
It could be past that distant town.
It might be nowhere here around.
Although by her question I was distracted and delayed,
The woman’s question interested me.
For some reason -- I knew not why --
I wanted to find that silver tree.
“The tree lies not along this road,”
With confidence I said.
“For along this route, this broken road,
I have often tread.”
“Sir, are you sure, completely sure,
That this is not the way?
For someone whom I trusted
Told me along this road I should stay.”
“I do not know how that could be
For I have never seen a silver tree.
This is not a gilded path of loveliness,
Not a path for kings and queens.
Along this broken road you’ll find the Lost --
Beggars, madmen, drunks, the stoned …”
“I’m glad that I do not travel this road alone!”
“I do not think that there is cause for fear,
But your silver tree cannot be here.”
At that moment I almost tripped
Over a Man whom I did not see --
I was as surprised as I could be.
The Man did look familiar.
His face I thought that I should know.
Had this Man once been my neighbor?
I do believe that it might be so!
The Man looked like a beggar,
Yet he asked nothing from me.
Was there a chance that he knew of the silver tree?
It was unlikely -- as unlikely as could be
That such knowledge belonged to one such as he.
Expecting nothing in return for me,
I gave the Man a golden coin.
It seemed the right thing to do.
I wanted to be generous, noble, good, and true.
Before I asked him a question,
Before I said a word,
The Man pointed toward a narrow path
That I had not observed.
He said, “That is the way
That you must take to find the silver tree.
Take this golden path along the golden way
To find the Tree of Life.
This golden coin is a golden key
That opens many doors.”
The Man did not say any more.
We bid the Man thanks and farewell.
We left the broken road.
Then, for the first time, I saw a golden path
And remembered what we had been told.
The path led upward;
I knew not where.
The woman and I soon were a weary pair.
We traveled high up a hill,
Then higher and higher and higher still.
When at last we reached the peak,
I knew that this was the place that we did seek.
“It is the silver tree!” the woman said,
Though she could barely speak.
I did not realize that we would find
The object of her quest to be so sublime.
How did this tree come to be here --
So far away and yet so near?
This mystery I tried to understand,
But, for my mind, the mystery was too grand.
I simply stood in humble awe,
Looking with wonder at all I saw.
