Samuel McCoy

THE SKIES are sown with stars tonight,

The sea is sown with light,

The hollows of the heaving floor

Gleam deep with light once more,

The racing ebb-tide flashes past

And seeks the vacant vast,

A wind steals from a world asleep

And walks the restless deep.

It walks the deep in ecstasy,

It lives! and loves to free

Its spirit to the silent night,

And breathes deep in delight;

Above the sea that knows no coast,

Beneath the starry host,

The wind walks like the souls of men

Who walk with God again.

The souls of men who walk with God!

With faith’s firm sandals shod,

A lambent passion, body-free,

Fain for eternity!

O spirit born of human sighs,

Set loose ’twixt sea and skies,

Be thou an Angel of mankind,

Thou night-unfettered wind!

Bear thou the dreams of weary earth,

Bear thou Tomorrow’s birth,

Take all our longings up to Him

Until His stars grow dim;

A moving anchorage of prayer,

Thou cool and healing air,

Heading off-shore till shoreless dawn

Breaks fair and night is gone.