Your Works Display Your Righteousness Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Gerard Manley Hopkins)

Your works display your righteousness, Lord,
and your love and mercy I cannot comprehend,
even your wisdom and power is without end,
Your sincerity is displayed in your word

but the works of my enemies prosper
and they are men, who do not honour you,
whose lives, whose words are never true,
while all my endeavours end in disaster

and Sir, at times I am struggling to know
if you view me as a enemy or as a friend,
while vile men rise against me, even every fiend,
creatures that with darkness glow.

I pray to have your blessings again,
to comprehend your will,
for protection against all the gathering evil,
for your presence like sweet refreshing drops of rain

and please forgive my faithlessness,
forgive my uncomprehending human ways
while you visit me in the coming days
and may I find in your presence tranquillity and rest.

[Reference: “Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend” by Gerard Manley Hopkins.]