A Once Secluded Psalm

This is another poem I wrote for my Creative Writing class. It is an epistle poem. 

A Once Secluded Psalm

By Melody Beerbower; October 28, 2015

Dear God,

Sometimes I go to the woods

Beside a stream carrying autumn leaves on a gentle journey

Over sleeping rocks and silent sand.

There is no one to fight with there,

No one to disturb my restful contemplations

With crude language or sexual speech.

Instead I marvel at the nature

Which You have designed so intricately—

The thread-like veins of the Maple leaves

Spreading out like miniature streams and rivers;

The seeds that cling to my clothes with Velcro fingers

Until I pick them off and drop them to be planted in new soil.

Each thing I see is a testimony to Your wise design.

Sometimes I sit under University Hall’s stone arches  

In the cool shadow of the domed ceiling of limestone, 

And sing to You the old hymns that I love:

Be Still My Soul and What a Friend I Have In Jesus.

When the Gothic arches echo my voice

Sending it back fuller and purer than before,

It is not hard for me, in that moment,

To praise You.

And when the fog swaddles the trees in an opaque blanket

And nearly drowns the bell tower above me

In its misty damp,

Then, yes then, It is easy for my voice to speak Your name

And for me to know that You are surely here,

Creator, and yet creating still.

But when at last the electric bells compel me to start another round of classes,

Just as the fog scatters from the harsh rays of the sun

So, all too often, my trust and peace flee

In response to the bitter voices of people who surround me.

Once more I am afraid to speak of You.

Instead my voice joins in the battle of words

And the emptiness of deceit.

Those who do not believe dare to speak Your holy name—

In disgust, in rage, in flippant indifference

And still I—who regards the very sound of it as precious—

Remain silent

And pass by with down cast eyes

Pretending not to hear…

Forgive me O God,

And teach me to love you more!

Lock in my heart the peace and trust

You showed me by the shore.

I cannot merely stay beside the stream

Nor remain in archways of stone,

For You have called me to live my daily life

Here in this world

Surrounded by the people

You’ve taught me to love.

Strengthen me in the times of solitude

That I might proclaim You in times of strife

And make a once secluded psalm of praise

The psalm of my whole life.