A LITTLE POEM I LOVE

An Unfinished Woman
by Jaroldeen Edwards (Women’s Treasury, p. 138)


Here am I, Lord
The dishes barely done and night long since fallen,
The children would not go to bed
And would not go and
Would not go—
And now they are gone.
Gone to places of their own with children of their own
Who will not go to bed and will not go…
And I have taught them what I could and
They have learned the things they would
And now they’ve gone their way alone to learn the rest
Most on their own.


And I remain, not half spent.
And I remain, not yet content,
So much to do, so much to learn,
So much to feel, so much to yearn.
My past mistakes make stepping-stones,
Not millstones great around my neck but
Stones to guide my searching feet—
And I must search; I’m incomplete.


I watch my years go tumbling by
And I must use them better, I
Have yet so much to learn to do
Before I can return to You.
The hour is late. The night comes on,
My celestial self I would become.
Ah! What wisdom thou gavest to mortal life—
I,
As sister, mother, daughter, wife—
In earthly roles have seen Thy face.
In my womanly life Thy heavenly place
Is taught through humble tasks and pain.
So, if royal robes I would obtain,
To wear as all Thy glories burst—
I’ll need to do the laundry first.