At first a void, no joy, no sun,
No laugh, no seed, no webs are spun,
No heart leaps up within the chest,
No noble work, no need for rest.
No sin, chagrin or river's bend,
No day or night or winter's blight,
No soothing sounds or gentle coos,
No mowing, lowing, snoring, snooze.
No flesh to yearn, to mourn, to weep,
No chicks, no eggs, no pans, no peeps,
No dawn, no tides, no sand on feet,
No splish, no splash, no wind, no sleet.
No nothing, really, nothing there,
Universe of cupboards bare,
No time is needed, nothing stirs,
Nothing creaks, nothing whirs.
Nothing twinkles, nothing glares,
But then It happened, burps and hares,
Galaxies, frogs and ticks,
Children playing pick-up sticks
Appeared in Time, took up Space,
Humans started human race
To walk world back to very start
In search of Force that forged their heart.
Millennia have come and gone
And yet is played a winsome Song
Of Joy that languished in the Night,
Bursting in a deep delight
That overflowed in sundry forms,
Firmament, seas and storms,
Life arising, teeming, born
To bear the news: Love adorns
Lily pads and ponds and brooks,
Open spaces, smallest nooks,
Deepest pain, highest mount,
Broken reeds, fullest fount.
A seed, it seems, was always there,
Alpha and Omega's lair,
Prince of Peace ordained to shine,
Invade our void as poured out wine
Creating dirt and seeds and rain,
Igniting schemes that self-sustain,
Embedding Joy amongst the folk
As wave of Life envelops, stokes.
Wave on wave, unending tide
Invigors life, then life subsides,
Inviting all to further shore
From whence He came, forevermore,
Where Peace awaits, where grateful souls
Can know the Source that made them whole,
Just past the cross and over hill
God's purest Joy awaits us, still.
