Those Hours

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. 1 Samuel 3:9

Before you read this simple poem today, take a deep breath. Be aware of your mind, your heart, your body as you read.

• What’s going on in you? Does the poem fill you with longing or gratitude, hope or anger? Why or why not?

• Do you have moments or hours like what she describes? (Did you use to have moments or hours like that?) Do you long for more or not? Why or why not?

Those Hours
by Joyce Sutphen

There were moments, hours even,
when it was clear what I
was meant to do, as if
a landscape had revealed itself
in the morning light.
I could see the road
plainly now, imagining myself
walking towards the distant mountains
like a pilgrim in the old stories—
ready to take on any danger,
hapless but always hopeful,
certain that my simple belief
in the light
would be enough.