How can I praise thee, Lord of all, whose genius fills the earth?
How can I thank thee, dearest Heart, whose Word formed everything?
You made the red-winged cardinal to fly, almost from birth,
The crow to caw, the kite to dive, the nightingale to sing.

You formed the alpine mountain rising high to meet the storm,
Wild wind and cloud to tame and weave its blanket of the snow.
The ocean waves that nurse the life within their waters warm
Send floating, swirling, swimming colors dancing in their flow.

I listen for the testimonies found on desert sands;
Coyote howls with screeching owls answer the cactus wren,
While silent shouting in the misty shade of forest lands
The ferns and hostas, columbine repeat the praise again.

Beneath, above and all around, within, without His praise is found
In all there is and isn’t sound through all that was and yet will be
A rhythm and a harmony wherein you, I and we compound
to lift our note, our beating heart, where we belong and yet are free.
Creation calls you to be you, and calls me to be me.
No one of us can witness all the wonders of His name,
But hand in hand our voices meet the measure of our frame.

How can we praise thee, Lord of all, whose genius fills the earth?
How can we thank thee, dearest Heart, whose Word formed everything?
You made the red-winged cardinal to fly, almost from birth,
The crow to caw, the kite to dive, the nightingale to sing,
And all of us to sing.
_______

Copyright 2025 M. Ryan Taylor

Note: Another multi-day project for me. The initial idea popped into my head after a morning prayer, an idea I may visit again in another lyric with a different slant; God wants us to be us, not anyone else … our unique voice comes in meeting the measure of our creation, not trying to be someone else. I chose the slightly more difficult rhyme scheme of ABAB, which forced me to expand my thoughts and really explore longer phrases. Some poets decry the restrictiveness of rhyme, but in this case I feel it really helped me explore this topic and expand my thoughts in ways that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

Photo: Greg Rakozy via Unsplash

Post filed under All UkulelePlay! Blog Posts.