Northland Psalm
by me Oct 1999

From the big lake comes the sighing
Of a chill surrounding breeze
And the echoes of it dying
Lost in far dune-crowning trees

Now the gulls have ceased their crying
And we pause a while in ease
‘Neath the winter-friend Orion
And the dazzling Pleiades

In the night sky we can find them,
On this autumn night they shine
Who can bind them or untie them?*
Every one of them is thine

In the vastness, low and hovering
Barely floating, clean and pure
Hangs the waxing moon uncovering
Tranquil shadows on the shore

As the waves are gently breaking
Liquid whispers, big lake heaving,
Rocking cedars, pensive, quaking
Their voice into the nighthymn weaving

In the lake gleam bits of starlight
And the moon slows in its mirror
On the dunes, diffused and soft-white
Moonlight finds us awestruck here

What a wonder lies before us!
All around His heartbeat beating
Who are we to join the chorus?
All our works are dim and fleeting

Hear Him love us with each wavebreak
On the beach spread out below us
In each moment, feel His heartbreak
Drink His love and let Him know us

On each ghost tree see Him dying
In the dunegrass hear Him calling
Once defeated, watch Him trying
To deliver us from falling

In the Passage**, almost hiding
Stands a beacon, in its role
With its lonely pulsing guiding
Mournful freighters through the shoal

High upon the bluff we feal Him
In this silence hear Him roar
Grass and sand and waves reveal Him
As no sermon has before

Though the wavesong bids us linger
And the starry skies entreat,
Though in bluffs we see His finger,
Though the lake-bourne airs are sweet,
Though the steady breeze restores us,
Though the moonlight makes us yearn,
Though His father-love reigns o’er us,
We must leave, though to return.

As we go, not seen before, a glimpse catch where lake meets sky
Low and dim glows an aurora; now and then its streamers fly
Pale and green and shifting slowly, thinking of it, I remember
What a night so still and holy on a dunetop in September.

*A quote from the book of Job
** The Manitou Passage in Lake Michigan contains several islands and dangerous shoals along the main shipping route for freighters