Ups and Downs

 


When the heart is hard and parched up,

come upon me with a shower of mercy.


When grace is lost from life,

come with a burst of song.


When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from

beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest.


When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner,

break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king.


When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O thou holy one,

thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder.

Bless this little heart, this white soul that has won the kiss of

heaven for our earth.

He loves the light of the sun, he loves the sight of his

mother's face.

He has not learned to despise the dust, and to hanker after

gold.

Clasp him to your heart and bless him.

He has come into this land of an hundred cross-roads.

I know not how he chose you from the crowd, came to your door,

and grasped you hand to ask his way.

He will follow you, laughing the talking, and not a doubt in

his heart.

Keep his trust, lead him straight and bless him.

Lay your hand on his head, and pray that though the waves

underneath grow threatening, yet the breath from above may come and

fill his sails and waft him to the heaven of peace.

Forget him not in your hurry, let him come to your heart and

bless him.


In desperate hope I go and search for her

in all the corners of my room;

I find her not.


My house is small

and what once has gone from it can never be regained.


But infinite is thy mansion, my lord,

and seeking her I have to come to thy door.


I stand under the golden canopy of thine evening sky

and I lift my eager eyes to thy face.


I have come to the brink of eternity from which nothing can vanish

---no hope, no happiness, no vision of a face seen through tears.


Oh, dip my emptied life into that ocean,

plunge it into the deepest fullness.

Let me for once feel that lost sweet touch

in the allness of the universe.