Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. Today we feature Pastor Kenneth Storck.
Storck graduated from Concordia Seminary in 1974 and was ordained into the ministry of the Catholic Church. He has a Master of Divinity Degree accredited by three seminaries. Stork has served congregations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. He's married and has three daughters.
Here’s his poem “What I Know.”
As I grow old
I now sit and ponder
wondering about
all that I don’t know.
I don’t know:
If the butterfly effect is true
and the flapping of their wings
can change the course
of the universe.
I don’t know:
If our lives on this small speck
have any significance
in the billions of years
before and after us.
I don’t know:
If there is a here-after.
Will it be full of laughter?
Or if it at all
really matters.
I don’t know:
Why so many on this planet
live in poverty and distress
while I am
so blessed?
I don’t know:
if this life is random
and capricious
or has something
now to teach us.
I don’t know:
All the players on the stage
or how long the
curtain will be raised
for the next act.
I do know:
That I will not live forever
and therefore, I treasure
these precious moments
beneath the stars.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
