swung like laughing infants

-

The Love of Morning

It is hard sometimes to drag ourselves
back to the love of morning
after we've lain in the dark crying out
O God, save us from the horror . . .

God has saved the world one more day
even with its leaden burden of human evil;
we wake to birdsong.
And if sunlight's gossamer lifts in its net
the weight of all that is solid,
our hearts, too, are lifted,
swung like laughing infants;

but on gray mornings,
all incident — our own hunger,
the dear tasks of continuance,
the footsteps before us in the earth's
beloved dust, leading the way — all,
is hard to love again
for we resent a summons
that disregards our sloth, and this
calls us, calls us.

[Denise Levertov]