GOD IN THE ROAD
And in the street-walker he has arrested, who shrinks beside him.
Each face that we pass is the image of God—
Now an emaciated remnant of features,
A weak chin, a chubby infant's smile,
Now hairy, now bald, now erect, now doubled with pain,
Now keen-visioned, but oftener miserly and grasping,
Now white, now a slant-eyed yellow-brown, now black-faced and thick-lipped.
Each face that we pass is the image of God—
Now an emaciated remnant of features,
A weak chin, a chubby infant's smile,
Now hairy, now bald, now erect, now doubled with pain,
Now keen-visioned, but oftener miserly and grasping,
Now white, now a slant-eyed yellow-brown, now black-faced and thick-lipped.
I am glad to know God.
I thought Him something different, all-powerful, cosmos-creating.
Which of these furtive faces could even see a cosmos?
I thought Him all-knowing, immortal;
And vaguely He is all these.
I thought Him something different, all-powerful, cosmos-creating.
Which of these furtive faces could even see a cosmos?
I thought Him all-knowing, immortal;
And vaguely He is all these.
But I shall not pray to God now,
Nor raise a gaudy temple to Him;
I shall help build Him a house to live in,
And He shall help me with mine.
Nor raise a gaudy temple to Him;
I shall help build Him a house to live in,
And He shall help me with mine.
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