make a path, o sunshine!

make a path, o sunshine!
~for the weary pilgrim~

I.
Make a path, o sunshine!
Light a lane, repair this winding way;
My feet have hit the rocks
and bends obscure and blind;
Where snagged and roughed array
of thorns and briars and dragons' frocks
Have contrived a choking hedge.
With flaming tongues they mock my pledge
and steal away my hope.

II.
Yesterday, the violent sea
and before that the desert;
A journey all the world around.
But today, pressed in by thickened trees
and predators haunt, for blood athirst
Heat and wetness gagging, gasping sound
Of my own breath in my ears drying
Is this the last? Softer mournful crying;
Will tomorrow return to me my hope?

III.
My straining, grasping gaze
To see but once the crowning crest
and there the face of Rapture....
So far already traveled;
haze and dark and blistered, festering;
This only trail to my heart's Captor
Fraught with travail and waiting
It will be worth all sorrows, fading
There in the light of my Hope.

~L. Page
(c) 2009 Leah Randelle