O Earth, Sufficing All our Needs

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O earth, sufficing all our needs, O youWith room for body and for spirit too, How patient while your children vex their soulsDevising alien heavens beyond your blue!

Dear dwelling of the immortal and unseen,How obstinate in my blindness have I been, Not comprehending what your tender calls,Veiled promises and reassurance, mean.

Not far and cold the way that they have goneWho through your sundering darkness have withdrawn; Almost within our hand-reach they remainWho pass beyond the sequence of the dawn.

Not far and strange the Heaven, but very near,Your children's hearts unknowingly hold dear. At times we almost catch the door swung wide.An unforgotten voice almost we hear.

I am the heir of Heaven -- and you are just.You, you alone I know -- and you I trust. I have sought God beyond His farthest star --But here I find Him, in your quickening dust.

© Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts