To Give

When I am old if such I must become

Let me not make inordinate demands

On those whom I have known, no bothersome

Requests from long familiarity

Or simple service of this heart, these hands

Offered to God in our humanity.

I would not be a burden, for to give

Defines the very constant of my way,

Were I to take I could not longer live.

My soul consigned to unseen God above

Shall stoically accept the close of day,

For I have lived in plenitudes of love.

There still remain so many fields to clear

In the cobweb crowded jungles of the mind,

My time is yet far off and earth so dear

That in these fruitful gardens of the Lord

Let me still work and through my work to find

A way to give more than I can afford.