Joy Sublime

Out of the lingering hurts of life,
The bitterness of futile strife,
Out of the sadness of faded dreams,
The slow crumbling of our ideals,
Out of the highest hopes now dead,
The smarting pain of tears unshed,
Out of the utter despair of life unrealized,
The broken melodies that youth devised,
Out of the stifled sobs and sighs unheard,
The pathos of pleading prayers unanswered,
Is wrought the longed for happiness
Blended with Love’s pain and its pure sweetness
Out of the womb of a divine exalted theme
Is born at last the Joy that we esteem.

Genevra Padmawathi Ameresekere 
(nee Daulagala) 
[06 July 1941]