Ash Wednesday

For Ash Wednesday, a poem by Madeline L'Engle.

Within This Strange and Quickened Dust

O God, within this strange and quickened dust
The beating heart controls the coursing blood
In discipline that holds in check the flood
But cannot stem corrosion and dark rust
In flesh's solitude I count it blest
That only you, my Lord, can see my heart
With passion's darkness tearing it apart
With storms of self, and tempests of unrest.
But your love breaks through blackness, bursts with light;
We separate ourselves, but you rebind
In Dayspring all our fragments; body, mind,
And spirit join, unite against the night,
Healed by your love, corruption and decay
Are turned, and whole, we greet the light of day.

-L'Engle