Psalm At Night

Photo by Dimitris Asproloupos on Unsplash

A Poem by Royal Rhodes

The snow feathers the air in the dark,

like a black peacock descending.

My soul is longing, at last longing

for a word, more than the watch for dawn.

Like watchers awaiting the distant light

after the final hour of darkness,

when dreams rise like ocean waters,

engulf me and close my mouth

on death. A cry from this berth of sleep,

up from the cold house of the lost.

The iron doors, once ivory

and ebony, keep my breath

enclosed, close to my cool face.

Am I awake ? The lesson is this:

I will know as I am known,

and hear without tongue or word.

Royal Rhodes is a retired educator who taught courses on the history of

Christianity for almost forty years. His poems have appeared in journals in the U.S.,

the U.K., and Canada. He lives now in a small village in the heart of Ohio.