We speak to them of courage and we hope within its speech
We find the very thing that we are striving thus to teach
Life’s laughter and lament, love’s learning-curves
amalgamate
Within the eye; hello-good-bye; time never bars its gate
As daughters become us and we stare long at our skin
And wonder who we are; the image not the girl within
Where dying ways that life inflicts upon our gaze reflects
The nature of all nature and the climax of all flesh
Our lips, once filled with answers suddenly are dumb and
numb
While merry moment-dancers seem to disregard the sum
Of all that they become as we peruse their aftermath
Where tragedy and triumph meld in glimmers on dusk’s path
Still, onward, ever onward, we commence again, again
The learning is not over until God declares, Amen
And so we speak of courage and we hope within its speech
To find the very thing that we are striving thus to teach
© Janet Martin
Our pastor,
Dale Ward, encouraged students to take this verse with them as they return to school...
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do
not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you
go." Joshua 1:9
From Tennyson's Tears, Idle Tears...
Tears, idle tears, I know
not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather in the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more...