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Laudemont Ministries
P.O. Box 369
Hamilton, Illinois 62341 U.S.A.
800-440-4043
laudemont@forecyte.com


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Since May 25, 2005
©2001 Shirley Anne Leonard
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LAUDEMONT MINISTRIES

A Sensible Approach to Christian Truth

POETRY BY SHIRLEY ANNE LEONARD

Zion

Published in Remembering Eden

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. — Isaiah 35:10

Joy, you speak of joy —
on this barren earth
stripped of flowers
and left to die
with sleet and storm
on winter-frozen days
that creep unfeeling
over life.
How can you speak of joy?

The joy cited in the oracles
proclaimed in sacred scrolls,
age-worn and blood-bought,
proclaiming that here and now,
in this battle-scarred earth
reeling with centuries of death,
we can yet be brought
to resurrection life!

But what kind of joy
could dispel this awful dark
that mutilates the soul,
what kind defy the glacial ice
that numbs the senses
and leaves the spirit raw?

That supernatural Joy
that on the dawn of creation
said, “I make a man
in My image,”
and saying that, hovered
over the ages
with the will to bring to pass
a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

But we are buried underneath
the pain of centuries.
How can misery bound in prisons
of the deep reverse itself,
and we who sleep
come crawling out of dungeons?

Yes, but it will come —
rising with the dawn
of one new morning,
flooding the weary world
with sound of singing—
clapping, undulating Joy
that catches all creation
in its grasp — it will come . . .

Dramatic Sunrise