“Lighten our darkness, we beseech Thee, O Lord…”
—The Order for Daily Evening Prayer, The Book of Common Prayer
From riotous rage that makes our hearts its lair
And stalks the opportunity to gain
Imagined justice for remembered pain,
Devouring health and peace and honest prayer;
From ghastly unforgiveness, that cadaverous
Attendant at hell’s gate, Good Lord, deliver us.
From dabbling at the edges of despair
When daily misery seems pre-ordained,
And loss of hope that life will be explained
Starts draining our capacity to care;
When senseless circumstances turn carnivorous,
Consuming mind and flesh, Good Lord, deliver us.
When perseverance has no strength to spare,
And pessimism’s thickest links of chain
Wind tightly round our hearts till we complain
That they are heavier than we can bear—
An inner suit of armor that will smother us—
Lighten our heaviness, Good Lord; deliver us.
When we would sleep with no desire to wake,
Arise, Lord God, and save us, for thy sake.
From the author’s book, Notes on Time; poem originally published by The Society of Classical Poets
Cynthia Erlandson is a poet and fitness professional. Her three collections are These Holy Mysteries, poems for the church year; Notes on Time, a tribute to the themes of time and music; and Foundations of the Cross and Other Bible Stories, which was published earlier this year by Wipf and Stock. Her poems have appeared in The Book of Common Praise hymnal, First Things, The Society of Classical Poets, The Catholic Poetry Room, Modern Age, and elsewhere. She is a Top Four winner of the 2023 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest.