Night: A Roundel
Lord, give us light and shatter by your word The darkness that’s enveloped us tonight. It’s pinned us down and left us all ensnared. Lord, give us light. For in the night our fears take form. The sight Of evil prowling chills our souls. The world Has lost her smile. We look around in fright. Yet in the night, we cling to what we've heard: That you are good, that all you do is right. Lighten our darkness, we beseech you, Lord. Lord, give us light.
There’s a beautiful collect in the BCP’s Order for Evening Prayer which I’m sure will be familiar to you. It goes like this:
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
That prayer became the basis for this roundel, a poetic form I’d been wanting to try after encountering it in Malcolm Guite’s poetry.
The world reflected in this roundel is a scary place. Yesterday as I held my baby niece, today as I walked down a country lane in the sunshine, the world felt beautiful, as of course it is in so many ways. But this weekend I’ve also been conscious of its dark side: of the dreadful things that have been done, that are being done, that may be done in the future. To think about such things for too long is indeed to chill the soul.
We can’t deny the darkness, and although we can ignore it at times, sooner or later it will seep its way (or break its way) into our consciousness. But we can pray for light to the God who is light, the God whose “light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”1
John 1:5 (ESVUK)