Civitas Dei (the City of God)

another from the archives -- my longing to walk, even now, as a citizen of Heaven

I yearn to be made free of that estate

Which is the spanning of your joy in me;

Wondrous that city, past all telling, great,

In which the sons of love find liberty.

There, where the shining streets stretch into light,

There I would tread in worship, and be free;

Where I shall know no fading into night,

Only that surgence, which is life to me.

There I would know the perfect, sure embrace

Of undivided love, and grieve no more.

But now, already freeman of your grace,

I would know something of that love before.

I would walk, even now, the open way

Of heart to heart, and know I am received,

Not for my merit, but by full array

Of straitless love, by which I was retrieved

Out of my doorless prison. I am come

To, faltering, learn the steps by which to go

From this small thinking, all too long my home,

Into the bounty which I yearn to know.