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Enter Spring

The Master

He who has come to men
dwells where we cannot tell
     nor sight reveal him,
until the hour has struck
when the small heart does break
     with hunger for him;
those who do merit least,
those whom no tongue does praise
     the first to know him,
and on the face of earth
the poorest village street
blossoming for him.
Its Secret Time

Out of a difficult and troubled season
the timely harvest thrusts amid the stones;
the dry mind that would claim a thousand reasons
melts beneath the Lord's appointed rain.

The furred magnolia buds we bring to warmth
here in the heated room soon bloom and sicken;
the tree without keeps its own secret time.

Powerless are we to move God with our clamor,
to seize the least fringe of his mystery;
but we must wait until the gift is given
and poor, walk faithfully the lanes of heaven.
To Jesus, in the Spring

Oh, break the chrysalis of doubt,
plow up the clods of thick despair,
and split the buds of ignorance,
and cleanse the winter-heavy air!

Create a tumult in our hearts,
drive us to seek what we have lost,
until the flame of faith again
has seared us with thy Pentecost!
poems by
Jane Tyson Clement

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