codex002489-008r

Thankfulness.
Susan Coolidge.
Thank God for life! it is not always sweet
Hands may be heavy laden, hearts care full
Unwelcome nights follow unwelcome days
And dreams divine, end in awakening dull.
Still, it is life, and life is cause for praise
This ache, this restlesness, this quickening sting
Prove me no torpid, and inanimate thing.
Prove me of Him, who is of life the spring
I am alive, and that is beautiful.

Thank God for love; tho' it may hurt & wound
Tho' set with sharpest thorns, its rose may be,
Roses are not of winter, all attuned
Must be the earth filled with soft air & free

Thank God for Death; bright thing with dreamy name
We heap her with reproaches, & with blame
But calmly mid our clamor and surmise
She touches each in turn, & each grows wise.
Taught by the light in her mysterious eyes
I shall be glad, & I am thankful now.