Poems (Coolidge)/Past, Present, Future

by Helen Elizabeth Coolidge

PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

Above me hung a darkening sky,
 Dense clouds obscured the blue;
No ray of heavenborn light to cheer
 Or dying hopes renew;
Yet, in the shadow, to thy hand,
 I, trustful, still did cling,
And found a covert from the storm—
 Beneath thy sheltering wing.

Above me dawns a brightening sky,
 Through rifts I see the blue,
A ray of hope doth bring me joy,
 Borne on the rainbow's hue;
In cloud or sunshine, Lord, I see
 That Love ordaineth all;
And, clinging still to strength divine,
 I may not faint or fall.

And when, for me, the cloudless sky
 Of Paradise shall shine,
I'll know the love now "darkly" seen
 By these dim eyes of mine;
Ah! then, my prayer, now feebly breathed,
 Shall lose itself in praise,
Glad echoes through thy courts resound,
 For endless, happy days.