i am a little church(no great cathedral) – e.e. cummings

i am a little church(no great cathedral)

far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities

_i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,

i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

 

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;

any prayers are prayers of earth’s own clumsily striving

(finding and losing and laughing and crying) children

whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

 

around me surges a miracle of unceasing

birth and glory and death and resurrection:

over my sleeping self float flaming symbols

of hope,and I wake to a perfect patience of mountains

 

i am a little church(far from the frantic

world with its rapture and anguish)at peace with nature

_i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;

i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

 

winter by spring,i lift my diminutive spire to

merciful Him Whose only now is forever:

standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence

(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)