Sabbath Poem (Roberts)

HALLOWEEN PRAYER OF INVOCATION

~ W. Hunter Roberts

Oh Great Regenerator of Life,
your children cling to color in a world set to
turn black and white.

Please understand,
and be with us as these autumn days turn
toward darkness.

For we know the leaves must finally blow away;
the flowers
must die.

Only the brave chrysanthemum will remain,
in colors of rust
and gold.

Then she too will bow her last farewell.

Lord of all wisdom,
help us trust the stripping bare each
year

That life be born anew.

Help us remember:
your ways renew better than our own, which
attach and cling.

Help us trust,
as we prepare to gaze on bare trees, that
beneath the earth, unseen,

Your promise is planted deep in our soil.

Oh God, our truth and our salvation,
our life is eternal
only in yours,

Amen.

Written for Royal Oak Church of the Holy City, 2005