PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

You, who read no calm reportings

Of alien, distant, dire events,

But shriek and keen as loves go down

Beyond all help, to violence;

Whose temple's walls, stormstruck and split

By sizzling bolts collapse around,

While mid the crash of chaos hope

Whirls in a death-spin to the ground;

You, who alone in deep distress

Cry out for help where there is none,

All you whom I shall never know:

I know a portion nonetheless

Of cruel trials you undergo.



Killers in many guises come:

Sudden as electric shock

Or looming ghostly as a shark

Leisurely finning toward its mark.

I who breathless and sweating once

Wrestled a devil to the floor,

And saw him rise again when he

Finished what he began before,

I who re-learned each childhood prayer

Forgotten, to the stars once more

Send up a poor and hopeless plea

For spirit's peace beyond despair.