Desert Tears
This is the first in a number of poems that I am writing based around psalms that have been significant throughout my life. I am writing them as part of a memoir project in which I am using the psalms as a way of communicating my spiritual journey over the last few years. I hope that you enjoy this sneak preview of the project.
Desert Tears (Psalm 42)
Why so downcast,
O my soul, my soul?
Why drag your heels through day
And scream into my ears at night?
Why eat your tears and drink
The salty air of noon?
Where is your God?
They say, they say,
Showing me the empty sky
And rubbing my face in mockery.
Where is your God?
I ask myself and cry.
I remember years
Long ago, long ago
When I went with joy to sing
And led the people singing too,
I remember and I weep
To see that I have fallen.
Why so downcast,
O my soul, my soul?
Why so anxious, so afraid,
So far flung from where you were?
Why do you rub your face
In the soil of tears?
Hope in Him,
My soul, my soul,
Hope, soul, in the Lord.
Look up from this wilderness,
Look up from your desert tears,
For I will yet praise Him.
The Consolations of Writing 