Acceptance (after Schubert)

Here falling leaves

Drop,

Drop,

A coverlet of peace

On summer’s weariness.

We have a need of Autumn.

And here, where winter

Barely takes its turn,

We seek our rest

Before the upswing comes;

The giddy cycle

Growing shorter every year.

Let us give thanks,

Here in darkness,

Claiming peace before light comes:

When we are uprooted

There is treasure underneath.

Listening to Schubert

No pillow for your head, no rest on earth,

The broken heart can find no bandage here;

But a rich vein of beauty opens wide,

And a sweet stream of loveliness sings clear.

No haunting night of devils and fell things

Holds you entire, another siren song,

Born from translucent joy, gives spirit wings

And touches glory all the while you long.

Therefore embrace through feared mortality

Love is its own reward, though your self breaks;

For we are broken that love may come in

And give far more the very while it takes.

And though such tears may spring, and endless spring

From the deep rupture of our loneliness,

Love still! Embrace the sharpened blade! Its sting

Is mercy’s rescue from our fruitlessness.

We sing the songs of ashen pilgrimage

With fumbling lips and throats parched raw with pain,

But where our voices fail, the angels take

Our prayers, and garnish them with hope again.

These are the Ones

Here is the time, here is the place.

These are the ones that need our grace:

These are the ones washed up on bitter shores.

These are the ones whose tears and pain

Drown in the unrelenting rain:

These are the ones whose hands reach out in vain.

These are the ones who haunt our dreams,

We block our ears against their screams:

These have no home upon the bountied earth.

These are the ones we cast aside,

(We are the great self-justified):

These who are out of sight are out of mind.

These are the ones we cannot face

As we deny our common race:

We turn our backs but cannot flee the shame.

These are the ones we put on hold,

Each with a soul more dear than gold:

Thus is our birthright cheaply bought and sold.

These are the ones – Lord hear their cries!

Silence our cold, pathetic lies:

Let there be justice for the least of these!

These are the ones, and we are they

Who took their human rights away:

Lord, let your kingdom come today!