Poems

If I had known that day what now I know Of Love's unfailing, infinite supply, The Master would have felt no urge to ask, "Whence shall we buy bread?" Nor I to answer, "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not Sufficient for them. " To mortal sense it seemed There was not bread enough in Galilee To feed the hunger of five thousand men.

Dear Father-Mother God, my prayer each day Shall not be words so much as Christly deeds Of love to those I meet upon the way, Who, burdened, seem with many human needs, Unsatisfied. May I with consecration's healing power impart The tender comfort of Thy joy and peace.

Sweetbriar sends its fragrance on the air, Obedient to its kind, Not waiting for a wind To waft the scent to special here or there, Or proudly everywhere; But in its quiet radius With giving, free and generous, It breathes delight for all who wander near. So may our lives the Spirit-fragrance breathe Of thoughts that dwell in Mind, Of patience, gentle, kind— That spiritual sense of Life that brings Odor of holy things: The higher joys and purer peace That give the earth-bound sweet release— Fragrance of Soul that whispers, "Life is Love.

In silent prayer we listen for God's Word With no desire except to know His will. With willingness to heed the truth when heard.

I Kings 17:8-16 Her eyes were closed to good: a drop of oil, A little meal, were left, and now she bent To gather two small sticks for final fire. Perhaps the ground was strewn with sticks, but she Had let in, "Not enough!" This error pinched Her whole perspective—dwindling sense of good Right down to nought.

Imagine (just for an allegory's sake) A group of sunrays were endowed with sight, With hearing, smell, taste, touch, as humans are, And as they were beamed and guided, each in its place, Each inseverable from, dependent on, its source, A vast assemblage of storm cloud approached With menacing glower, wind-hurled and lightning-rift, Appearing to eclipse, in direst dark, Impenetrable, all that before was luminous. Imagine (for the allegory's sake) These rays cry out in terror at the blast, And (as one in a nightmare faces doom) Huddle despairing, blinded to believe Themselves quite lost, identified with the cloud; Tasting the bitterness of the wind, and numbed By stinging spindrift, bereft of warmth and home.

" What wait I for?" The day of Truth is here! Why gaze in dreams, when all about is light And Love? The clash of arms and raging fear Of war are passing with the waning night. "What wait I for?" Truth's swift-advancing dawn Has swept away the night, and I can see The harvest fields, the golden fruits upon The ground, matured by Love's own radiancy.

What could evolve the universe but God? He made the heavens, the earth and all therein, Man in His image, upright, not to plod The way of dust, a prey to fear and sin. No particle of matter could create The man who has dominion, pure and free, Hallowed by Spirit, loosed from greed and hate, Dwelling in Life that cancels death's decree.

Compassion lays the suffering one Outside the sacred temple gate, Or brings the cripple to the edge Of famed Bethesda's bubbling pool; And friends convey a palsied man To rest before the Master's feet. Then human love can do no more.

" Be still, and know that I am God. " Be still      And know? How can we know this God, unseen.