BY SOPHIA HELMKAMP

(In the style of T. S. Elliot)

To the River to pray
I went down to the River to pray
I was sent down to the River to pray
And to be healed

With wandering heart and mind and wondering thought
And foreign hands and offered gifts unsought
To Jordan’s banks
Come down and taste the nations’ healing draught
In word of promise

A word to witness worth in sacrifice
A herald’s price
A martyr by mouth and body, faith fulfilled
Behold! sight, hearing, strength, riches in gospel
Riches in water and in fire and spirit
And in blood freely spilled
For men

I pass unharmed through the tempest
Windows opened and fountains broken
Through water to salvation
On the vessel of my salvation
My mother, my ferry
To carry
Me safely through death
The valley of the shadow of death
For I have died
In Him
And been buried
With Him
And death has no more power over my soul

On Jordan’s banks the curious crowds
The marvelous mystery
And righteousness completed
For now
Not yet

Where is thy victory, o grave