Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A PRAYER FOR TODAY, by CHARLES NELSON PACE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A PRAYER FOR TODAY, by                    
First Line: Lord, in an age of steel and stone
Last Line: Which call life into lordlier ways.
Subject(s): Modern Man; Prayer; Religion; Theology


Lord, in an age of steel and stone,
When girders tell the dreamer's plan:
Give me the grace to stand alone,
Give me the strength to be a man.

As mighty trains on shining rails
Haste onward through the night and day:
Send me on work that never fails
Because of indolent delay.

As planes that plunge into the sky
To find themselves upborne on air:
Teach me the life of trust to try,
And find the soul upheld through prayer.

From distant places voices speak—
They fill the mind with mystery:
Then may I now Thy message seek,
O, let me keep in tune with Thee.

Amid the motion of machine,
The whirl of wheel, the rush of wings:
Help me to live the life serene,
Because victorious over things.

May something of the vast designs
That motivate and move our days,
Be but inevitable signs
Which call life into lordlier ways.





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