- "THE
GRADING"
-
- The test
would last just hours
- Though
their training spanned the years,
- Could those
who watched appreciate
- Their hope
- their pride - their fears,
-
- To test
they're bodies and their minds
- For hours
they must drill,
- Knowing
that the sweat that flows
- Is governed
by their will,
-
- Success is
what their training breeds
- It is
written in their creed,
- And
memories of their classes past
- Are dreams
on which they feed,
-
- The seconds
tick, the minutes pass
- The hours
seem like years,
- Their
Sensei is not satisfied
- "Again"
rings in their ears,
-
- Basics now
- their legs cry out
- Each step a
painful stance,
- Kata next -
"mo ichi do"
- As if
they're in a trance,
-
- Some glance
at those they struggle with
- Beneath
this summer sun,
- They're
look it says - without your help
- I never
could have won,
-
- The rank
and title that they seek
- They claim
through years of strife,
- More than
firiend they are bonded now
- For all
their earthly life,
-
- For
Shotokan is what they do
- Karate is
their art,
- The lessons
that their Sensei taught
- Are planted
in their heart,
-
- He asked -
they gave - a fair exchange
- He is a
master of this cast,
- Who
promised them a memory
- For all
their life to last,
-
- And when
their gradings over
- A sweet
silence fills the air,
- Four mute
walls a testament
- To what
they had to bear,
-
- The lights
are off the door is locked
- To open
once again,
- When others
seek to follow them
- And walk
this road of pain,
-
- Now age may
dull thier memory
- Their youth
God will take back,
- But forever
they are Sempai's now
- Who've
earned their belt of black.
-
- This poem
was written by
- Sensei
Peter Lindsay, Go Dan (FSKA)
