Exhaling

When prayer is labor
and prayer-bones ache
and physical and spiritual muscles
begin to shake;
when we stop seeking You
in the lightning
and in the earthquake,
and only want to give ourselves,
forgetting we’d wanted to take,
the toil and fatigue of duty
become a safe and welcome ark,
the glimpse of our own
nothingness a good and holy spark,
the desire for Your will alone
becomes our distinctive mark,
and at last we know that
Your radiance
is best seen
in the

dark.