Prayer at Timber-line / Ruth Suckow

Prayer at Timber-line  (1921)  by Ruth Suckow

from Poetry, June 1921.

Prayer at Timber-line

Timberline Lodge, Oregon, 2013. Photo by Another Believer. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Oh, that I could fashion words
  As the wind bends the trees—
Could shape my lines as shining-bare,
  As exquisite, as these
White branches of the writhen pine
Standing alone at timber-line!
 
Winds of life, blow stinging-free
  Into my heart that’s waiting, still!
Beat on my words unceasingly,
  And shape them to your stern white will!

This poem is in the public domain