How George Herbert would have loved this word <br />for all the images it lights in mind! <br /> <br />The gloried sun of soul, no added light <br />needs, in unshadowed light of reason’s day; <br /> <br />but in the murky night of ignorance – <br />then reason’s other task, the probing beam <br />upon the dark, cruel cobweb-cornered mind <br />may shine; and as it clears the willing mind, <br />the sharper (and more seeming painful) those <br />last vestiges of age-old, flying things <br />that lurk and creep in coward-cov’ring dark! <br /> <br />A stormy sea needs most a light-house brave: <br />for age-old things resent the searchlight’s beam; <br />but when the night, and that unknowing’s cloud <br />yield to the eastward flush of dawn – how bright <br />the daylight shines, for those who watch all night! <br /> <br />And so, George Herbert, as you spoke the word - <br />in all things seen; for Whom, all done: our Lord.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-searchlight/
