A Summer Psalm of Freedom

O God of all seasons.
    it’s summer – the season I dreamed about
    throughout winter’s long, dreary days.
Now is the time of leisure,
    time to be out-of-doors-and-walls.
But so often I feel like an over-civilized child
    of this century of convenience and comfort.

Six months ago, it was snow and ice
    that screened me in from earth’s delights.
Now it’s a television screen that too often
    massages my mind, weary from work,
    that screens me in
    from shaman summer’s healing touch.

And even if I flick that dead-window off
    and go outside on the porch,
    I’m still screened in or carefully protected,
    lest bugs and flies disturb my comfort
    by bringing nature far too close.

Grant me, O never-tiring Miracle Worker,
    the freedom of my childhood
    to run and play with abandon,
    without thought of comfort, bugs or flies,
    in summer’s great vacationland.

From Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim, by Edward Hays. Forest of Peace Books, Inc., 1988.