Grace Noll Crowell Poems

Let me come in where you are weeping, friend,
And let me take your hand.
I, who have known a sorrow such as yours,
...

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
...

I never came to you, my friend,
and went away without
some new enrichment of the heart;
More faith and less of doubt,
...

The common tasks are beautiful if we
Have eyes to see their shining ministry.
The ploughman with his share deep in the loam;
The carpenter whose skilled hands build a home;
...

This, too, will pass.
O heart, say it over and over,
Out of your deepest sorrow,
out of your deepest grief,
...

Whatever else be lost among the years,
Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing:
Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,
...

Little, lovely, friendly town
Bright beneath your maple trees -
With your dooryards sending out
Lilac scent upon the breeze;
...