From the mountaintops I have praised Your name, <br />Now from this dark valley I will cry out the same. <br />Heavy and murky are the clouds – is this my last stand? <br />Tumultuous are the storms that stir in these depths oppressive; <br />Surely a flood will overwhelm me in this grievous land. <br />Howbeit, when the waters recede, washed part way up the mountainside I shall be. <br />And then in climbing I shall ascend above those clouds, low-hanging clouds of the hollow of despair, Steeped in overbearing darkness. (Stifling darkness, how thick the air!) <br />But You, Spirit of the Living God, shall give me endurance that I sink not, <br />And strength for the climb to reach the peak so beautiful. <br />Where I shall overlook a greater depth, a darker valley, with striving fraught; <br />Yet exalting the name of the Lord for the higher mountain I will see from this coming pinnacle, <br />Holding it fast in my mind for those black days <br />That I cannot see because of the clouds in the valley always. <br />From the highest height, from the deepest depth, let my mouth bring forth praise. <br /> <br />(March 6,2005)<br /><br />David Lovell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-hollow-of-despair/
