Strange and Quickened Dust

ashes to ashes, dust to dust

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.

- Madeleine L'Engle

found in Glimpses of Grace, the reading for March 22

You may also find it in The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle p. 66