I Don't Ask for a Life of Ease . . .

I don’t ask for a life of ease or beg a crust

Nor do I ask for that which will profit me

But will take from me instead profiting another

For a poured-out life I yearn---more---I plead

That the life in my depths be as the source of a star

For what would one be in this world other than a light?

If life was not as a burning beacon it was nothing

If I could ask for what I long, it would be this

To be a spring---from which others could drink

And be replenished

To be bread---from which any may happily eat

And be strengthened

To be a voice---such as any who hear it might rejoice

And find fit company in inimitable loneliness

Not only am I fit to give when I am strong

But when I am weak

This is my hope then that strength be not my own

For this alone works miracles

Any influence of love is as much to be felt

In the hard black ebb tides of life

As in sunlit days upon the flood:

The same pull that takes the sea returns it

If strength through weakness could be received

For faith and hope in these few childish words

Then would I be full and my lifework done

                                      *