Justus quidem tu es, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Lent, Day 15

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?
Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,
Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
Now, leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build - but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

I know, I know, everyone blips robins and I have done before, but oh, this one was gorgeous with its bright eye and feathers ruffling in the wind, and trills of joy - HAD to choose it, even though had spent a whole walk doing my best to capture the "banks...leavèd how thick"...

Love how Hopkins' complaints dissolve away in the first line of the sestet when he contemplates the swelling of spring - often a good cure for discontent. And the fact that the poem today is a meditation on Jeremiah 12:1-2 is also apt, as am studying for a sermon on chapters 18 and 19 of that book for Sunday evening.

Went out for a lovely meal tonight with my girls and their friends, at a new bar-lounge that's opened. Good distraction from a day of sadness.