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From a London garden cover

From a London garden

Chapter 4: THE PRIDE OF LAZARUS

By Arthur St. John Adcock

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About This Book

A collected series of lyrical poems moves between urban and rural imagery to reflect on love, mortality, time, memory, and moral growth. The poet uses concise, imagistic language and varied meters to meditate on human experience: longing and loss, pride and humility, the rhythms of city life and quiet country scenes, the passage of days and seasons, death and consolation. Voices range from personal confession to philosophical observation, with elegiac tones, religious reflection, and celebration of steadfastness. Recurring motifs—light and shadow, dawn and evening, gardens and streets—bind individual pieces into a contemplative portrait of inner life amid modern surroundings.

THE PRIDE OF LAZARUS

Lord, I am poor and desolate!

The beggars at Thy outer gate,

Who cringe to purse-proud passers-by,

Are not more desolate than I.

The rich and proud have passed me there

And gone into Thy House of Prayer,

But I have stretched no pleading palms

To ask their pity or their alms.

And now, before the prayers begin,

I too, O Lord, will enter in

With heart elate, to praise and pray,

As thankful and as blest as they.

They praise Thee in communion sweet

For silks they wear and flesh they eat;

They thank Thee that Thou dost not flout

And leave them as the poor without.

I praise Thee that, for all my cares,

I have a pride that laughs at theirs;

I thank Thee that, though frail I be,

My strength has bowed to none but Thee.

Curse me, O Lord, with want and ill,

But make my spirit strong, and still

Give me, whate’er Thy hand denies,

A soul no swine-trough satisfies.