This Life

This trip-slip, death-grip, fumbling, stumbling, fully humbling flight

This ‘it seems I must learn through my mistakes what I do right’

This churning, yearning, no-returning, ever-learning leap

Propels us ever onward; rise ‘n shine, labor and sleep

This groping, hoping, coping, holding, folding dawn to dusk

This ‘count your many blessings’ journey and ‘in God we trust’

This crying, sighing, trying, wondering, pondering surge

Does not excuse us from its quest as dark and daylight merge

This bloody, muddy study vexes and perplexes us

This all-consuming rooming-house of living’s muss and fuss

This trial-and-error troubling terror would be hard to bear

If we couldn’t call on Jesus in love’s tender splendor; prayer

© Janet Martin