Bright

We live our lives in darkness
and fumble for the truth;
this dim and shadowed starshine
is bright as day to you.
And what to us is hidden
lies open to your sight,
for bidden or unbidden,
your presence fills our night.

We cannot bear the sunlight—
our vision is not strong—
so as a lantern's wan light 
you hid your burning dawn.
But even that is blinding
when all we've known is dark,
and, oh, what is this lightning
awakend in our hearts?

We walk the shade as pilgrims
who barely know our names,
and only learn we're tinder
when we have met your flame.
And then, O living glory,
you blossom in our night,
and make of us your morning,
and all the world is bright!

The Aygerlich lake By MEDIACRAT, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11600807

Half-Light

The lightening sky before the dawn,

the gray that tells us morning comes,

the paling east whose stars are gone,

the flaming clouds that hold the sun:



So creeping, as the old earth turns,

reveals a new world to our eyes.

The stars fade out; a great light burns:

We see the sun of justice rise.



But first, the half-light heralding,

to run before the break of dawn.

Ere stars wink out to greet their king,

this prophesies, as sure as John,



of stars that fall before the sun

and dying embers lifted high,

rekindled by the burning one,

while brightest gutter out and die.



And all the mornings long foretold

shall rise as one and still be dim,

and all the prophecies of old

shall be fulfilled at last in Him.



O Mary, glimmer of Christ's light,

your shining was his shining first.

May he make us, as you, shine bright

when he fills all the waiting earth.

This picture shows the sunrise at its best and it was taken at 5am at dawn and you can see how the lighting rolls apart in this picture As you can see the house and the trees shown in the picture had the shadow to cover them in black too it was taken on 5-3-2019 By Morjana Jalal – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81516889

Breaking

The world you spoke first long ago
was broken into shards,
and it is all the world I know,
though it will break my heart.

But now you speak a different world
I cannot comprehend.
How shall it break me open, Lord,
when this old world shall end?

What shall it be, this world you speak,
where night is clear as day
that we may find the road we seek
and safely go our way?

This world you speak, what shall it be,
this breaking dawn on high
to pierce the fog of prophecy
and touch the longing eye?

This world you speak, where music sounds
upon our long-deaf ears
like fallen seeds, and breaks the ground
we watered with our tears,

what shall it be?  What shall we see,
whose eyes were closed so long,
when all those weeping silently
break into joyful song?

And in this world, what shall I be?
Shall you remake me, too?
What seeds are breaking forth in me
when you make all things new?

Oh, give me eyes to see your world
and ears to hear its song;
let day break in my heart, O Lord,
while yet the night is long!

Am Schloßtor, signiert F. Knab, Öl auf Leinwand, 50 x 40 cm By Ferdinand Knab – http://www.dorotheum.com/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49335372

What Is This Light?

What is this light that dawns at last
to pierce my eyes and daze my mind?
These sharpened shadows that it casts
as fleeing darkness falls behind?

Not gone—the night is never gone—
but it retreats before the day,
and I, that had forgotten dawn,
am blind and helpless in its rays.

Come, Lord, who led me through the dark;
come, angels that around me camp:
Do not forsake this lifted heart,
but bear me still the lighted lamp!

My stumblings shall uncovered be;
my faults laid open to the sky.
No more shall darkness comfort me—
walk with me while the sun is high!

Lord, touch my eyes and strengthen them
to bear the vision of the day,
to see the New Jerusalem,
though I will struggle on the way.

And if I cannot make it there,
then bear me as your bore the cross
until I come, your light to share
through every night and every loss.