Hope, just like some gleaming star shines forth
To bid us through the grey of this short life,
As some pure form of goodness and of truth
We see it clear—God’s tempered grace through strife.
As when on stormy nights the furious wave bequeaths
To stones the cold and breaking from within 
It’s shivering foam, we see—along the gulf,
And dirt and grime washed up from the past din—
A glistening pearl! between the oyster’s lips!
And just beyond the gloom we see a glow
That’s coming with the ebbing of the tide,
And with all faith we trust and pray and know
The morn has come to be our ship’s true guide…
And when on land with wearying feet we tread
The dry and beaten road now paved with dust,
Our bleared but upturned vision looks ahead
As through a world of glass and not of rust
T’ward ruddy skies to see it shining there—
The sapphire throne!—where Mercy sits enthroned!
You see the star of hope beyond that crystal stair?—
You see where Christ, with chastening Shepherd’s rod,
He stoops to help our need?
And here we know the woes we fear don’t stay,
Nor quite destroy the passion of our will
To do what’s right, and trust our souls to God
When Choice will see beyond, and never stray
Where poisoning falsehood awaits the final kill.
You know, O watchful heart, how parched this living shell
Wherein with shivering souls we crowd and press;
Can not you hear the tolling of the knell
That sounds if we’re to faint but to redress
The wrongs we have, the fainting minds we know?
Ah see—there’s time! yet time! for us to raise our strength
And be ourselves a pearl of glistening truth
Amid those tempests wild that will decay
To mist, and help along life’s gulf
That wandering child, that faltering man,
To where sweet Hope lies in its oyster shell.

COPYRIGHT 2021 BROOKLYN K. BIEGEL