By the rivers of Babylon

There we sat and wept...

-Psalm 137

When my life is alien soil

And a wind

Like fear

Makes restless ground

Of all I've done—

What song, then,

To send out roots

To drink the rain

That does not come—

How could I sing?

Watch light come

From dark and mist rise

From waters; sky and shore

Emerge out of night,

And a tree half -green,

half- bare.

Half-afraid of what is in me

(though God has called it good)

I sob over nothing,

desires I cannot name.

Sing us, they say.

A song you remember...

"The Companionable Dark" and "What Song, Then?" are from JOURNEY, by Kathleen Norris, copyright 2001. All rights reserved. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburg Press.

Citation: Kathleen Norris, " What Song, Then," SBL Forum , n.p. [cited April 2006]. Online:http://sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleID=145