by Julie Harrison
Dear God, who are you?
Are you sky or mist or stone?
Are you tears or dust or dew?
Are you smiles or wind or bone?
Do you clap your hands and sing
a song so sweet and rare
to make the dainty lacewing
dance in the morning air?
And do you give the pill bug
a home under shadowy rocks
and keep him cool and snug
beneath a blaze of phlox?
Are wind and rain and thunder
your creations too?
Are the sun and tender glow of moon
lamp stands for all the things you do?
Do you see us here below
struggling with each other?
Do you see our raging wars
and hear our foolish thunder?
Do you hear us crying in the night?
Do you feel our sorrow, know our plight?
Do you make babies crawl about
and all the children run and shout?
Do you make the oceans swell
and splash upon the sand?
Do you cause the birds to flock
and fly across the land?
Do you give us trees and soil
to grow our luscious crops?
Did you scoop the meadows out
and form the mountain tops?
Are you the little voice
that whispers in my ear
and tells me how to live each day
And as I learn to love the earth
and marvel at its beauty,
are you shimmering in all I see?
Will you always be beside me?
Are you in the painter’s brush
that strokes the canvas sheet?
Do you waltz within the words
that make a poem complete?
Do you fill the lover’s head
with dreams of tender passion?
Do you measure out the days
that bring us resurrection?
Do you cause my blood to flow
and tremble through my veins?
And when I feel so all alone
are you in my flesh and bone?
And when it’s time for me to die
and lie beneath the ground
will you be there close to me
when I can hear no sound?
Everything I know and dream
you have taught me from the start.
My Abba, Father, Lord Supreme
you have my soul and heart.
Julie Harrison is a retired English and biology teacher who is part of Paoli Mennonite Fellowship, Paoli, Ind. She has been writing poems most of her life and sometimes shares them with her church.