Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Apr 5, 2011 0:08:15 GMT -5
THE PROMISE
Have these dissolved along with summer wine-
The days when words danced to a sacred score?
The cloistered spaces with their flickering sign,
The deeper things of God you could explore?
It seems you have no time now for a song
And days are eaten up by grinding jaws
Of work that’s never hard enough – or hours too long
To satisfy the next untimely cause.
And has the blight arrived to bite your words
Deny them life; you can no longer pray?
And throngs of thoughts like clouds of dark-winged birds
Are ragged shadows, staggered into grey?
And tied to wheels of duty’s sacrifice
Do you find God, still, calling through the noise?
Or loud demands that time will not suffice-
That steal your sleep and rob your life of joys?
The paths well trod seem lost without a sign
The day washed grey with sombre tattered clouds
The days that sparkled once with summer wine,
Now fading, draped in drabbest duty’s shrouds.
You pick this stone, a prophet’s exclamation
“Remove the heart of stone, and make it beat
Hard with the pulse of life and transformation!
Direct my path; be light unto my feet!”
But turn again, and pause your homeward walk
Catch in your sight a figure by the gate?-
Resting upon the post, prepared to talk?
Compassion holding him in silent wait.
There is your hope, a strength that’s unmistaken;
Near as your very breath, with promise true-
Though life is hard, you’ll never be forsaken
Unseen, unfelt, unheard, He’s there with you!
© PAULINE GRIFFITHS
Have these dissolved along with summer wine-
The days when words danced to a sacred score?
The cloistered spaces with their flickering sign,
The deeper things of God you could explore?
It seems you have no time now for a song
And days are eaten up by grinding jaws
Of work that’s never hard enough – or hours too long
To satisfy the next untimely cause.
And has the blight arrived to bite your words
Deny them life; you can no longer pray?
And throngs of thoughts like clouds of dark-winged birds
Are ragged shadows, staggered into grey?
And tied to wheels of duty’s sacrifice
Do you find God, still, calling through the noise?
Or loud demands that time will not suffice-
That steal your sleep and rob your life of joys?
The paths well trod seem lost without a sign
The day washed grey with sombre tattered clouds
The days that sparkled once with summer wine,
Now fading, draped in drabbest duty’s shrouds.
You pick this stone, a prophet’s exclamation
“Remove the heart of stone, and make it beat
Hard with the pulse of life and transformation!
Direct my path; be light unto my feet!”
But turn again, and pause your homeward walk
Catch in your sight a figure by the gate?-
Resting upon the post, prepared to talk?
Compassion holding him in silent wait.
There is your hope, a strength that’s unmistaken;
Near as your very breath, with promise true-
Though life is hard, you’ll never be forsaken
Unseen, unfelt, unheard, He’s there with you!
© PAULINE GRIFFITHS