tonight my heart is heavy
and I cannot keep from whispering this prayer...
"are You there?"



oh great God.
be small enough to hear me now.

r.i.p. Katrina
[august 29th, 2005]

hello, Mr. Darkcloud.
never thought that we would meet so soon,
never thought I’d bundle up in June.
funny how the fog rolls. funnier that I’d know who to blame.
never thought I’d have to own this pain.

if all that’s good and true comes from heaven,
then what’s a girl to do when it rains?

 

and I’m saying, "why, why, why, why?"

I’m shaking a fist in the dark,
and I’m asking, "why, why, why, why?
why does it keep getting harder to say thanks?"
tell me what's a girl to do...

blessed be Your name
on the road marked with suffering
though there's pain in the offering
blessed be Your name

You give and take away, You give and take away
my heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed. be. Your. name.

"Hope here comes from the people and their remarkable belief that,
if we all stick together, we'll survive.
The residents of the Gulf Coast have an enormous pride in their ability to take a punch,
even a knockout blow, and stagger gamely back into the center of the ring.
Their parents survived Camille, and Betsy and Frederic,
and they are determined to get the best of this latest legend."

broadcast to each house, they drop your name
but no one knows your face
billboards quoting things you'd never say
you hang your head and pray
for Jesusland

"The task of rebuilding is monumental and disheartening to the outsider.
But to the battle-scarred survivors of the Gulf Coast...
today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow something good will happen."

 

miles and miles and the sun's goin' down
pulses glow from their homes
you're not alone
l i g h t s. come. on.
[as you lay your weary head on their lawn]



"When William Faulkner accepted the Nobel Prize in 1950, he said, in part:
"I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.
He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice,
but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion, sacrifice and endurance."
Today, Faulkner would find in his native state a resilient spirit that is amazing to behold.
The people here will sacrifice and give and give until one day this storm will be behind them,
and they will look back, like their parents and grandparents, and quietly say,
"We prevailed."



[and I could not pretend to know the difference
between the storms You send and those I find.]

I've always thought I was taller than I looked, she said, but that belief is not without difficulties.

"Come back and make up a goodbye at least, let's pretend we had one..."
"I love you..."
"Meet me in Montauk..."



[everybody's gotta learn sometime.]