Interlaced by Lucy Bell
When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair,
When despair for the world grows in me
And when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights,
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
Rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
a power that is able to make a way out of no way
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.
Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long,
For a time I rest in the grace of the world,
but it bends toward justice.
and am free.
***
Lucy Bell’s 35-year teaching career included over twenty years as a writing consultant. Her latest book, Coming Up, A Boy’s Adventures in 1940s Colorado Springs, combines narrative non-fiction with the history of the black community of Colorado Springs. It features rare historical photographs and the watercolor illustrations of Linda Martin. Release date: October 14, 2018. Her children’s novel, Molly and the Cat Who Stole Her Tongue, published in 2016, is available at Poor Richard’s Bookstore, Colorado Springs and Amazon.
