STARK APPREHENSION

Can I honestly
  thank God
  in the desolate
Days
  cheerlessly hung
  with hopelessness
  and atrophy;
Days enshrouded
  with mental murkiness
  physical absurdities;
Those days in which
  no song dares stir,
  no joy enlivens
my leaden living?

How can I
  praise God when
All day
I fight
I struggle
  to brush the grey
  encircling crepe away?
Embalmed feeings
  resurrect no hope.
Yes! I can
Thank God
  stark
  apprehension
    of His Word
Keeps me
  knowing
  He'll not leave me
    desolate.

—Nancy Spiegelberg

"The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth, and delivereth them out
of all their troubles...and none 
of them that trust in him shall
be desolate."     
Psalm 34:17,22

©1981 Nancy Spiegelberg