Monday 24 December 2012

Deep in the Quiet Wood by James Weldon Johnson


Deep in the Quiet Wood

Are you bowed down in heart?
Do you but hear the clashing discord and the din of life?
Then come away, come to the peaceful wood.
Here bathe your soul in silence. Listen! Now,
From out the palpitating solitude
Do you not catch, yet faint, elusive strains?
They are above, around, within you, everywhere.
Silently listen! Clear, and still more clear, they come.
They bubble up in rippling notes, and swell in singing tones.
Now let your soul run the whole gamut of the wondrous scale
Until, responsive to the tonic chord,
It touches the diapason of God’s grand cathedral organ,
Filling earth for you with heavenly peace
And holy harmonies.


James Weldon Johnson, Saint Peter Relates an Incident (New York, London, Victoria, Toronto, Auckland: Penguin Books, 1993), 52.

My City by James Weldon Johnson


My City

When I come down to sleep death’s endless night,
The threshold of the unknown dark to cross,
What to me then will be the keenest loss,
When this bright world blurs on my fading sight?
Will it be that no more I shall see the trees
Or smell the flowers or hear the singing birds
Or watch the flashing streams or patient herds?
No. I am sure it will be none of these.

But, ah! Manhattan’s sights and sounds, her smells,
Her crowds, her throbbing force, the thrill that comes
From being of her part, her subtle spells,
Her shining towers, her avenues, her slums—
Oh God! the stark, unutterable pity,
To be dead, and never again behold my city.


James Weldon Johnson, Saint Peter Relates an Incident (New York, London, Victoria, Toronto, Auckland: Penguin Books, 1993), 37.

Life by James Weldon Johnson


Life

Out of the infinite sea of eternity
To climb, and for an instant stand
Upon an island speck of time.

From an impassible peace of the darkness
To wake, and blink at the garish light
Through one short space of fretfulness.


James Weldon Johnson, Saint Peter Relates an Incident (New York, London, Victoria, Toronto, Auckland: Penguin Books, 1993), 39.