When My Words Do Not Suffice

When I cannot find words to say what I want,  what I feel,  and  what I mean to say, I end up turning to poetry.  The poet strings words together to form sounds, images, and ideas that are too complex or abstract to describe using my small vocabulary.  

Ultima Veritas 

When the anchors that faith has cast

  Are dragging in the gale,

I am quietly holding fast

To the things that cannot fail;

I know that right is right;

That it is not good to lie;

That love is better than spite,

And a neighbor than a spy;

I know that passion needs

The leash of a sober mind;

I know that generous deeds

Some sure reward will find;

In the darkest night of the year,

When the stars have all gone out,

That courage is better than fear,

That faith is truer than doubt;

And fierce though the fiends may fight,

And long though the angels hide,

I know that Truth and Right

Have the universe on their side;

An that somewhere, beyond the stars,

Is a Love that is better than fate;

When the night unlocks her bars

I shall see Him, and I will wait.

(Washington Gladden, 1836-1918)