Reason and Passion

By Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet 

Your soul 
is oftentimes 
a battlefield, 
upon which 
your reason 
and your judgment 
wage war against 
your passion 
and your appetite. 
Would that I 
could be the 
peacemaker 
in your Soul, 
that I might turn 
the discord 
and rivalry 
of your elements 
into 
oneness 
and 
melody. 
But how shall I, 
unless you 
yourselves 
be also the 
peacemakers, 
nay, 
the lovers 
of all your 
elements? 
Your reason 
and your passion 
are the rudder 
and the sails 
of your 
seafaring Soul. 
If either your sails 
or your rudder 
be broken, 
you can but 
toss or drift, 
or else be held 
at a standstill 
in mid-seas. 
For reason, 
ruling alone, 
is a force 
confining; 
and passion, 
unattended, 
is a flame 
that burns 
to its own 
destruction. 
Therefore 
let your Soul 
exalt your reason, 
that your passion 
may live through 
its own daily 
resurrection, 
and like the phoenix, 
rise above 
its own ashes. 
I would have you 
consider your 
judgment 
and your 
appetite 
even as you would 
two loved guests 
in your house. 
Surely you would not 
honor one guest 
above the other; 
for he who is 
more mindful 
of one 
loses the love 
and the faith 
of both. 
Among the hills, 
when you sit 
in the cool shade 
of the white poplars, 
sharing the peace 
and serenity 
of distant fields 
and meadows - 
then let your heart 
say in silence, 
God rests in reason
And when the storm comes, 
and the mighty wind 
shakes the forest, 
and thunder and lightning 
proclaim the majesty 
of the sky - 
then let your heart 
say in awe, 
God moves in passion. 
And since you are 
a breath 
in God`s sphere, 
and a leaf 
in God`s forest, 
you too 
should rest 
in reason 
and move 
in passion.  

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