The Ballad of St. Barbara and other verses/The Sword of Surprise
THE SWORD OF SURPRISE
Sunder me from my bones, O sword of God,Till they stand stark and strange as do the trees;That I whose heart goes up with the soaring woodsMay marvel as much at these.
Sunder me from my blood that in the darkI hear that red ancestral river run,Like branching buried floods that find the seaBut never see the sun.
Give me miraculous eyes to see my eyes,Those rolling mirrors made alive in me,Terrible crystal more incredibleThan all the things they see.
Sunder me from my soul, that I may seeThe sins like streaming wounds, the life's brave beat;Till I shall save myself, as I would saveA stranger in the street.