True Life

Dear God, I lift my tired eyes

From earth’s hot pavements, dusty drear;

And, in the calm, cool, starlit skies,

I see thee ever near.

I close mine ears to revelries,

To party strife and market brawl;

And, in the whispering of the trees,

I hear thee softly call.

My lips I bar to careless speech,

To foolish vauntings, fancied wrongs,

And, in the silence, thou dost teach

My weary heart new songs.

I turn my feet from out the maze

Where self in wanton blindness hides

And lo!  I find the sweeter ways

Where Christ, Himself abides.

My hands no longer pluck the tree

Where pleasure gilds the fruit of sin;

But, reaching through the dark to Thee,

True life, oh Lord, I win.

-       Robert Dorman