Poems

During a Wednesday night testimony meeting in our church, my mother expressed gratitude for articles in the Christian Science periodicals about praying for Haiti, following the January 12 earthquake there. I wrote this poem while riding home in the car.

It is night and all are quiet in their beds And I am on watch over my sheep. I have a new threshing instrument with teeth, To make the mountains small and the crooked way straight.

A man walks down a sunlit street and enters a theater dark; he dons a costume, plays a part, and hopes his character makes a mark. The play could be a comedy, a tragedy, or farce; the actor gives with all his heart in the plot of this life's cast.

I led old Jethro's flock to a sheltered field— Green against the wilderness beyond. Tall shrubs gave welcome shade from which I watched The hungry sheep crowd to crop lush grass.

In my darkest night, when I thought I was all alone I closed my eyes and felt the fear circle round. But then something moved, like a murmur in a nameless crowd And I heard Your voice calling my name out loud.

Psalm 139:9, 10 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. My son is on a ship tonight just where, I cannot tell He's keeping watch and peering at the inky, sequinned swell.

I awake each morn to a brand-new day, Singing Halleujah! as I go on my way, For my heart is fixed on this one guarantee: The Love that is All holds me tenderly. REFRAIN: Tender mercies, oh tender mercies, Tender mercies are holding me.

Longshoremen crane and shred old rusted cars, load heavy freight at harbor docks till nine— they transport metal scrap to ports afar. All day ships sail beyond horizon lines.

O Thou unchanging Truth, whose facts eternal give us the courage to outface the storm, to rise against the senses' swift alarm and stand unmoved at Spirit's high tribunal, Thy Word acquits us and Thy Word is final. O Thou abundant Life, whose freshness daily admits no common round, no dull routine, this is our joy and this our discipline, to take Thy gift of life and use it fully; this is our highest task, to spend it freely.

I am the Lord, there is none else; There is no God beside Me. I girded thee, I girded thee, Though thou hast not even known Me.