Caught in the drifting whirlpool of the mind,
An icy storm where scraps of shipwrecks flew,
Spun, vanished, I could not surface to view
The pastures where cattle and horses find
Nutritious crops blown by the golden wind.
Or, floundering in a rip tide that drew
Souls far from beaches into churning, blue,
Departed ocean, desperate, unkind,
Haunted by jellyfish and sharks that stared,
I was the unremembered, unprepared,
Struggling from devastation to dismay,
Until the Lord on quiet wings of day
Brought reason's life-raft and the bloodstained cross,
Water, forgiveness and redemptive loss.