PRAYER IN WINTER

It’s sunset but the gray and leafless tree

Still stretches out a skeleton of limbs

As winter clouds surround the ebony

Of frigid nightfall and relentless winds

Wreak havoc with the bleak and dead stiff earth

And blow away the final hint of green

As with it ends the hope of any birth

Of hope itself, now unfelt and unseen.

And still the tree on this fast Frozen day

Is rooted deeply in unfrozen ground.

A thousand arms lift up their silent praise

And raise to God their hymn without a sound.

Our Father, from this black and lifeless plane

Our arms reach up. Our voices sing your name.

RESURRECTION SUNDAY

The soft green leaves drink in the gentle light

That pours triumphantly a constant stream

Which permeates the earth. The flowing beams

Wash softly through the fields, expel the night

From nature as the morning birds delight

In festive song and dance among the trees.

The world is shrouded in tranquility

Beneath the cover of the blue domed sky.

“Don’t fear. He is alive.” The angel says.

“He goes in front of you along the way.

When you arrive the One who goes ahead

Awaits you at the ending of your day.”

As angels speak and nature testifies,

This day in You begins our endless lives.