In the Wide World

(c) Glenn Sackett photograyphy - used by permission

By Tom King

In the wide world I have heard

               God’s voice singing with other tongues.

Far and away in places unexpected and hard sometimes

               To hear, but there all the same.

And I knew then, that I had been made

               To live forever; forever turning corners just like that

And finding bits of sweetness, bits of delight

               Like tiny shards of the glory that was Eden.

In the wide vault above me I have traced

               The paths where men have struggled to be near

The tingling heights where it seems by rights we should belong

               But never can quite reach.

And I know now, that I have been made

               To tread the skies with angels for companions

And put out my hand and touch His face

               Like a child would touch his Father’s cheek.

In the wide depths I have seen and I have felt

               The splendor of his workmanship and not alone

For even there some men still fight to save the evidence

               That we are only children in this vast creation.

And each man knows yet that he has been made

               To keep the gardens of the Earth; the skies, the seas

And in his inmost self, he knows the reason he was made

               And who it was that made him.

(c) April 1989 

Written during nap time at Lil’ Britches Day Care
*Photo by my friend and incredible photographer, Glenn Sackett