Life lessons from children

To My Unborn Child

Jane Tyson Clement

I carry life or death within me;
this little stirring, blind and pushing creature
is the sweet paradox
inevitable
weighing me down with either joy
or sorrow.
Teach me, my little one, the slow acceptance,
whether death or life is born within me.
I am in God’s hands, and you
in God’s hands
through me—
all of it God’s: the light, the dark,
the winter,
and this wild, petal-drifting,
sun-dazed May.

Selah.

Jane Tyson Clement, No One Can Stem the Tide

Faith: Wonder in the now

We shall be circled over at length

We shall be circled over at length
by a remoter sky,
and flung into a starrier space
more deep, more high.

Some day the little mind of man
will crack and spin
to let the chattering years fly out,
forever in.

The sea will be more brief to us
than jewel of rain;
and what now stuns us with its might,
beauty or pain,

will be as faint as cheep of mouse
or swing of flower
under the gusty wing of heaven;
and what seems power

will drop away and pale to dust
held in the palm;
and what seems passion now will sink
to leveled calm.

Therefore be quiet with your breath,
all little men,
and hold some wonder, in the Now
for the great Then.

Selah.

Jane Tyson Clement, No One Can Stem the Tide