Rare Book of the Day – Lines Scribbled on an Envelope, Madeleine L'Engle, First Edition.

rarebooksleuth (63)in #books • 6 years ago

Lines Scribbled on an Envelope, Madeleine L'Engle. First Edition.

Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) was an American writer who wrote primarily in the young adult genre. She's best known for her 1954 fantasy book A Wrinkle in Time, which won the Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. She won numerous honors over the years, and is still held in high esteem. In fact, a crater on Mercury was named after her in 2013!

She also wrote four books of poetry over her lifetime, with this, Lines Scribbled on an Envelope, being her first. It was published in 1969 and, despite being a strong work, is seldom heard of these days. Here's one of the poems in the collection:

While Riding The 104 Broadway Bus:

There is too much pain
I cannot understand
I cannot pray

I cannot pray for all the little ones with bellies bloated by starvation in India;
for all the angry Africans striving to be separate in a world struggling for wholeness;
for all the young Chinese men and women taught that hatred and killing are good and compassion evil;
or even all the frightened people in my own city looking for truth in pot or aid.
Here I am
and the ugly man with beery breath beside me reminds me that it is not my prayers that waken your concern, my Lord;
my prayers, my intercessions are not to ask for your love
for all your lost and lonely ones,
your sick and sinning souls,
but mine, my love, my acceptance of your love.
Your love for the woman sticking her umbrella and her expensive
parcels into my ribs and snarling, " Why don't you watch
where you're going? "
Your love for the long-haired, gum-chewing boy who shoves the old lady aside to grab a seat,
Your love for me, too, too tired to look with love,
too tired to look at Love, at you, in every person on the bus.
Expand my love, Lord, so I can help to bear the pain,
help your love move my love into the tired prostitute with false eyelashes and bunioned feet,
the corrupt policeman with his hand open for graft,
the addict, the derelict, the woman in the mink coat and discontented mouth,
the high school girl with heavy books and frightened eyes.