A Prayer

Lo, in our souls there is a fervent prayer,

Which we beseech, O Lord, be not in vain:

The young, the pure, the innocent, the fair,

The helpless aged, those all ruthless slain,

Their cries the sea hath heard, the land their groans;

They sink to death beneath the choking waves,

The bird of prey flies o'er unburied bones,

Or they lie deep within the ocean caves.

And for the living, yea, our hearts must ache,

That chaos comes again to us doth seem;

Shall brutal strength a brutal right yet make,

To change the glory of the human dream?

O, from the blackness of this awful night

We wait Thy promise in, “Let there be Light!”

Alfred Lambourne