Stan Galloway’s most recent poem to appear here was Walking Toward Emmaus (April 2013). Have you read his first full-length poetry collection Just Married yet? Find out more here.
Half a Century
By Stan Galloway
I’ve given half a century
to my faith
and look now on the squalor,
splintered dreams,
rejection that it’s brought.
to my faith
and look now on the squalor,
splintered dreams,
rejection that it’s brought.
I haven’t got
another half a century left
to see what doubt
will bring me,
but I’ll try it for a while
and examine just a few things
that I’ve missed.
And if God finds
I still don’t measure up
despite the decades that I’ve tried,
there is nothing more
that I can do or be,
except a sinner
calling to his stony face
within the dark.
I so identify. It brings to mind a writing that says “Doubt is the touchstone of faith.”
Thank you for inspiration today.
That’s all anyone can do. At least you tried. Nice job.
This beautiful and poignant. It reminds me of the struggle I have had with faith since being separated from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church where I spent my childhood.
<3