Upon this silent plain

Upon this silent plain
Where seas and breezes
Are passing

The chill upon prickled skin
Awakens the soul within
Let in the life
Breathe out thy strife

This shifting sand
Swimming in hand
Settling softly and soothing

Where doth thy doubts lie
Why so sorrow doth thou occupy
Where might hope's firefly
Warm and chase thy chill

This dawning day
With each morning ray
Steals away the moments
Of yesterday gone away

Yea thy worry may yet
Flurry within
Save like the wind
May rush in and on
Again

Tis a passing
Make not thy lot of them
Let thy courage be proved
By their passing tempest

Thou art not alone
Who's footprints caressed
By this shifting sand
Doth warm and remind

The Lord of sand and season
Hath here His reason
For thy waiting
Wondering
Wandering

All in time
Shall be known
Yet while this maze
May grow on and on

Let faith be thy guide
In Him who formed thee
In thy skin

Safe and secure
Shall He keep
So let not these
Passing shadows

Darken thy ways
In all things
May they breathe
Songs of praise

Till thy warming light
May once more
Take flight in thee

For all thy misery
Be as momentry
When thou doth
Rest secure

In Him who calms
The raging sea
And gives peace
To thee

In thy passing
Paradise lies
Not far

There are winds
From it's shores
And currents
Along the way

That catch thee
In it's call
They shall carry
And guide

That thou
Mayest find
Hope along the way
Upon each moment
Of each
Passing day

-Joshua Lee Foist

So come to me my gracious hope

So come to me my gracious hope
Contentedly wrap me in thy gentle rope
Secure in all that may be found
So steadfast in thee may I ground
This faith of mine

My fair fleeting existance
Doth oft frazzle me
And floundering I
In the stormy eye
Take in the winds
Around

The storm rages on
Though I come in
From thy plummeting
Wake

For thy goodness sake
Hath pulled me
For I had
Been cast
Away

I do not resent
Thy stab of correction
That wounds me deep
In my bosomed
Sleep

The wound that bites
And cleanses
From all the bruises
And beatings

Their deeper
Work remains
For it reminds
The warrior
Within

The road goes on
The battle just
Over ridge

Yet safe secure
Thy refuge
Near at hand

Accept thy challenge
In this thy desert land
Where mountains
Far and valleys
Where ere the eye
Can see

So courage come
Thou swift
And surely

Be quick to carry
Through all
The drought
And dreery

For fury
Comes on
The wings of
Worry where all
Thy doubts do flurry

So brandish thy blade
Make it count
And charge the open
Country

Thy clouds shall shade thee
In the heat of day
And the moon shall light
Thy darkest night

So steady thy footing
And carry on
Thy journey far
Thy joy shall run
The course

For through the thickest
Fog that bog thy mind
So too its respite dew
Shall nourish

Through droughts that would
Discourage shall find
Enough in kind
To care

When last
Thy journey
Shall find thee there
Thy trials endured
Thy prayers re 'sured

The salt of sea
At last awaits
And so cast from
Shore thy anchor
Holds

And swiftly out
Upon the glassy sea
Where there no more
Find misery

Thy haven harbor
Past the hopeful horizon
Lies thy bounty full
In its shimmering sands

-Joshua Lee Foist

I hold out for you in the calm and rain

I hold out for you in the calm and rain
What worry or fear or darkness or pain
Thy hand to guide my trembling heart
Thy way is sure thy motives pure

Lead me through the desert
And beyond past the rocks
And the wilderness
Where thy oasis
Is my song

Yet all along
The pathway
I find

Thy love
Thy joy
Thy respite
Beside

For all I have longed
Hath always
Been here

In dark
In storm
In fears
In scorn

Nowhere have I been
Thy self have not known
For all I have been
And before I was born

My life you have seen
As though a passing dream
Yet planned and provided
All along the way

Where doubts creep in
May they draw me closer
To you my soul longeth
Evermore

For she of whom I pray
And doubt and convey
Whether one day
Or never

You
Are forever
And no one
Else need I save you

Though desires
Delight may come
By first light

Ere wait I
Beside though
The storm may
Awhile

You shall never fade
When all deny
Still thee alone
Can I rely

So give me this heart
Though fleeting
In part

My words speak they true
Desire they only you
And what ere
Of earthly pleasures

There passing
A vapor
May I always
Be faithfully
Found
In you

-Joshua Lee Foist

Weep my soul in melodies of minds unknown

Weep my soul in melodies of minds unknown
Of fairs my mind can play alone
In symphonies yet sewn

Inscript my sonnet
Fit these feeble lines
That measure my
Gazesless maze

Words will wallow
In that wake
So sing my heart

In thee will
My fingers play
Recite oh
Ravishing night

That hides my cares
Aflight upon the stars
Unite my prayers
And pains requite

Tis here thy yearning
Plays its pondering prose
To a one who truly knows

Beyond the blanket bows
Where compose
These thirsting thoughts
That quench their fill
On thy open wake

Forsaking not
All thy soul hath sought
None else can know
Thy earthly woe

Sew thy soul
To this unspoken
Friend no other
Can one depend

In sorrow in song
Thy works go on
Welcome oh wrong
Or right

These words recite
For thee alone
Tonight

For all that they
Would fright
Cannot know
This plight

Save this evening vigil
Where prayers
By candle light
May properly
Give flight

Oh faith may find
Thy fears to mind
No more to fain
For here thy courage
Gain in this

Thy one true name
And only fame
Shall find here
No other

Doth know
Thy wordless deeds
For them thy body
Bled

For this
Thy journey
Tread

Where no other
Soul did dare
Be fed

For hollow
Thy stomach
And gape
Thy painful
Loss

Did bear
Them all
Upon
Its cross

To carry
Thy worries
There

That in
Thy shallow prayer
May find thy sweet
Surrender there

Where eyes
May strain to see
Thy hope thy one
Sure found
Victory

No other
Can truly know
As him who
Thy sorrow
Hath been

That thou
Mayest
In his joy
Find

A love
Unbound
By human
Hearts

-Joshua Lee Foist