Delight in me, O Love, as I have tried

[joel]

Delight in me, O Love, as I have tried
to locate joy in you—and then surpass
my failure by an equal span of grace
and needed favor. I had pierced the heights
of cliff and slope, my feet within the chilled
caress of valley-creekbed waters, all
in vain attempts to carve an idle face
for solely something of your holy grace
to comprehend embodied like a pall
upon a hidden death—and I was thrilled
to ponder beauty there until the rights
of your transcendency prevailed: disgrace
befalling faithlessness I owned. But pass
my hubris over; peace in me confide.