Winter Sunshine

The “Miserere” of the wintry earth Went up to Heaven on the wings of air— I heard it, sitting by my lonely hearth— An awful music; sighs and moans of prayer, The anguish human words could never bear Into God’s ear, the agony whose birth The soul hides from itself were mingled there With the fierce undertones of frantic mirth. Then came a hush, and suddenly the floor Was carpeted with sunshine, living gold, That filled the heart with summer; Heaven’s door Was touched and opened, and at once there rolled, In strains of sweetest music from above, Back to the earth an answer, “God is Love!”