The Weather of the Heart Quotes

“The winter is cold, is cold.
All's spent in keeping warm.
Has joy been frozen, too?
I blow upon my hands
Stiff from the biting wind.
My heart beats slow, beats slow.
What has become of joy?

If joy's gone from my heart
Then it is closed to You
Who made it, gave it life...

Elusive, evasive, peace comes
Only when it's not sought.

Help me forget the cold
That grips the grasping world...”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems

“Fore Word

Poetry and prayer are synonymous in my life, and because both are a gift, which I accept with joy and sometimes pain, I seldom know whether I have served the gift well or ill. But perhaps that doesn't really matter; the important thing is to be willing - to want to serve the gift whenever it comes, either as verse or prayer...

My heart's climate is not constant; I doubt if anyone's is. My inner weather shifts with the days. But much sunshine has shone on me through the sharing and giving and receiving.

And so I am taught to pray. And so I am taught to be.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems

“...And you, behind the footlight's lure,
Kissing an actress on the stage,
Will leave her presence there, I'm sure,
As I my people on the page.

And yet - I love you, darling, yet
I sat with someone at a table
And gloried in our minds that met
As sometimes strangers' minds are able

To leap the bounds of times and spaces
And find, in sharing wine and bread
And light in one another's faces
And in the words that each has said

An intercourse so intimate
It shook me deeply, to the core.
I said good-night, for it was late;
We parted at my hotel door

And I went in, turned down the bed
And took my bath and thought of you...”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems

“Why, my Lord, did you have to bring
Me down from the safety of my hill
Into the danger of your will?" (David p. 34)”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems

“Moses

Come.
When?
Now. This way. I will guide you.
Wait! Not so fast.
Hurry. You. I said you.
Who am I?
Certainly I will be with thee.
Is nothing, then, what it is? I had rather the rod had
stayed a rod and not become a serpent.
Come. Quickly. While the blast of my breath opens the sea.
Stop. I'm thirsty.
Drink water from this rock.
But the rock moves on before us.
Go with it and drink.
I'm tired. Can't you stop for a while?
You have already tarried too long.
But if I am to follow you I must know your name.
I will be that I will be.
You have set the mountain on fire.
Come. Climb.
I will be lost in the terror of your cloud.
You are stiff-necked and of a stiff-necked people.
YOUR poeple, Lord,
Indubitably.
Your wrath waxes hot. I burn.
Thus to become great.
Show me, then, they glory.
No man may see my face and live. But I will cover you with my hand while I pass by.
My people turn away and cry because the skin of my
face shines
Did you not expect this?
I cannot enter the tent of the congregation while your
cloud covers it and your glory fills the tabernacle.
Look. It moves before us again. Can you not stay still?
Come. Follow.
But this river is death. The waters are dark and deep.
Swim.
Now will I see your face? Where are you taking me
now?
Up the mountain with me before I die.
But death
bursts into light.
The death is
what it will be.
These men: they want to keep us here in three
tabernacles. But the cloud moves. The water springs
from a rock that journeys on.
You are contained in me.
But how can we contain you in ark or tabernacle or
You cannot.
Where, then?
In your heart. Come.
Still?
I will be with thee.
Who am I?
You are that I will be. Come.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems

“...O God,
here, as so often, I cannot help.
Let me not forget she is your child
and your concern makes mine as nothing.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems

“Pain is a partner I did not request;
This is a dance I did not ask to join;
whirled in a waltz when I would stop and rest,
Jolted and jerked, I ache in bone and loin.
Pain strives to hold me close in his embrace;
If I resist and try to pull away
His grasp grows tighter; closer comes his face;
hotter his breath. If he is here to stay
Then must I learn to dance this painful dance,
Move to its rhythm, keep my lagging feet
In time with his. Thus have I a chance
To work with pain, and so may pain defeat.
Pain is my partner. If I dance with pain
Then may this wedlock be not loss but gain.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems

“When will you come
and how will you come
and will we be ready”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems