Patience Worth

Pearl Lenore Curran] (1883-1937

Listening

I shall lend mine ear, Lord, listening.
No confusion of the day shall appall me,
Neither the awesome expanse of night.
I shall be confident in the morning,
And lose no faith with the day.
I shall be steadfast through the night,
Lingering an instant in her embrace,
That I whisper a pledge, a pledge to morning,
Proving thereby my fickleness
To this hour of departure!

I shall lend mine ear, Lord, I shall hark.
Oft, oft I have heard that still small voice
Whispering little fitful chidings or
Insistently gnawing. Oft, oft I have acclaimed
Mine own wisdom, while the voice laughed,
Laughed a tinkling laugh, such as a fool
Might spill, and whispered: 'Care, care, follied one!'
Oft, oft I have pondered deeply, coming to
That culmination, which gives comfort
In the exultance of victory, and heard that voice
Laughing, laughing- -Yea, seemed to see
A pair of careless lips whiffing dusts,
Little motes, so: 'Poof!'
And all my ponderance fell to ash!

I am undone, for mine ear has learned to list,
And in learning this I have come to know- -
That this insistent voice is Thee!
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