I've been kept alive to make these lines.

I've been kept alive to make these lines.
Why else have I been fed?  Why given
so many comforts?  Why spared the malign
ambush of illness?  It's been a kind of heaven.
I've been kept alive to make these lines.

I've been saved to graze in meadows of
language.  To what end?  To prepare 
my thoughts to become an act of love.
To turn my every utterance into prayer.
I've been kept alive to make these lines.