At a Window

(The Angelus by Jean-François Millet, 1814–1875,
French painter)

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” wrote Paul of Tarsus (circa 3-66 A.D.) in his letter to the Christians in Corinth, Greece.

AT A WINDOW

Give me hunger,
O you gods that sit and give
The world its orders.
Give me hunger, pain and want,
Shut me out with shame and failure
From your doors of gold and fame,
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!

But leave me a little love,
A voice to speak to me in the day end,
A hand to touch me in the dark room
Breaking the long loneliness.
In the dusk of day-shapes
Blurring the sunset,
One little wandering, western star
Thrust out from the changing shores of shadow.
Let me go to the window,
Watch there the day-shapes of dusk
And wait and know the coming
Of a little love.

~ Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), American poet and writer and biographer of Lincoln