How many times, I wonder, have I prayed
With all my waning strength for some one grace,
One desperate panacea to efface
The miseries that make my faint hopes fade—
How many nights have passed in my despair
Before I found the wits and faith to see
The providential serendipity
Whereby the Lord ignores and answers prayer?
For, peering out from terror’s shroud voluminous,
At last I realize that what I ask
Is not in keeping with the soul-wyrd numinous
Which glows within my heart behind doubt’s mask—
But when at last I glimpse His purpose luminous,
I bow before my long-appointed task.
