"I do not hope to bind the wind..."

“I do not hope to bind the wind,
or set a fetter on the sea --
It is enough to feel His love
blow by, like music, over me.”
― Sara Teasdale


a million
stars

a billion
grains of sand

more drops of water
in the sea
than
can be counted
by the gods
of men,

drops
that
rise,
and fall, and
rise again,

as Love

to form the cloud,
then drop
a blessing on each
arid desert place,
to send a prayer
into
the waiting
lips of
a thirsty
child...

an errant dream,
a
strong desire,
more impulses than
a priest could
hold
at bay,

mere human will
can never
chase
the winds of passion
to the
four corners
of
the globe,
or
take the reins of
uncertainty...
however strong...
to hold
one crime in check...

Who then?

Who takes
control when
chaos
screams and bitterness
urges anger's unrestraint
to the surface of
a seething
sea,
a roiling
ocean of mistrust and
hurt

it is Love...

it rises like
the strong
arching spine of
an ancient
creature....

it slices through the
crashing of the surf,
and penetrates the
pounding pulse of pain's relentless
voice...

it quiets
all that
cannot be stilled by
skilled hands
or well-meaning words...

it is Love that
carves a path of moonlight
for the wayward,
lonely
mariner...

it is Love that
brings the
mermaid home to rest
beneath a
poet's
pier...

it is Love,
simply Love
that breathes a song
through
the throat of
an empty nautilus,
the sun-soaked
conch,
each blade of sea grass
and calls
us
gently
home...

stills our
sorrow...

and
dries the
heavy
tear...

“And may Thy Word,
enrich the affections
of all mankind,
and govern them.”
― M. B. Eddy