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Madeleine L’Engle is perhaps best recognized as the author of A Wrinkle in Time, the enduring milestone work of fantasy fiction that won the 1963 John Newbery Medal for excellence in children’s literature, but she she also was a poet.  One reviewer characterizes her poetry this way: 

It is startling to encounter words that so quickly, easily puncture the day to day patterns that trouble us – whether riding public transport or hopping on social media: “too tired to look with love, too tired to look at Love, at you, in every person.” Her honesty strips bare what phrases like “compassion fatigue” cover up. It is tempting to think that new technology or novel new realities are to blame – but for words like these, written decades ago.

Here is an excerpt from Madeleine L’Engle’s 1969 poem, “Lines Scribbled on an Envelope while Riding the 104 Broadway Bus”:

There is too much pain
I cannot understand
I cannot pray…

Here I am
and the ugly man with beery breath beside me reminds
me that it is not my prayers that waken your
concern, my Lord;
my prayers, my intercessions are not to ask for your love
for all your lost and lonely ones,
your sick and sinning souls,
but mine, my love, my acceptance of your love.
Your love for the woman sticking her umbrella and her
expensive
parcels into my ribs and snarling, “Why don’t you watch
where you’re going?”
Your love for the long-haired, gum-chewing boy who
shoves the old lady aside to grab a seat,
Your love for me, too, too tired to look with love,
too tired to look at Love, at you, in every person on the
bus.
Expand my love, Lord, so I can help to bear the pain,
help your love move my love into the tired prostitute with
false eyelashes and bunioned feet,
the corrupt policeman with his hand open for graft,
the addict, the derelict, the woman in the mink coat and
discontented mouth,
the high school girl with heavy books and frightened eyes.

Help me through these scandalous particulars
to understand
your love.

Help me to pray.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo by Mitchell Johnson on Unsplash

With thanks to the good folks at SALT for sharing Madeleine L'Engle's poem.