EasterJoy

Bowed heads and solemn faces
Tight-mouthed with down-turned lips
Exhorted to raise
Hearts and voices
In Easter Joy.

What Joy is Duty?
What freedom in fear?
Gratitude on lips
Betrayed by careworn and listless forms.

Hear the voice of God in creation's force
Smell the incense of His presence in fertile earth
Moistened by gentle rains
And warmed by the sun.
Hear the Lord in Cuckoo call
Or in Blackbird's unchained melodies.

Grasp life as it passes
Or heaven will be lost in empty silences.