Ecclesiastes

By Christianna Hellwig

Upon a windy slope of sand

I saw a wizened preacher stand,

And all his parched, cracked lips could form,

Amidst that gust from taunting storm,

Three words were those he said to me,

“All is vanity.”

His words like sighs were borne away

With rays of the departing day,

While all my life, that morbid call

Sank through my fingers to its pall,

When with a wail he said to me,

“All is vanity.”

With chilling dread I left that place

Whence crumbled hope before my face,

But hauntingly they followed me,

Three words which never set me free,

Since with a sigh he said to me,

“All is vanity.”

’Twas while embittered with my loss,

I came upon a wretched cross,

Where hung my life, all empty shrouds

Upon a man midst umbra clouds,

Yet still with love He said to me,

“Naught is vanity.”

A long-stopped stream within my heart

Was at these words released in part,

As innocent He bore my pain

That I might live for greater gain,

While in His grace He said to me,

“Naught is vanity.”

The wind yet blows along that strand,

With chilling dread still stirs the sand,

But now for me its chill removed,

As life for Him I truly loved,

Since He afflicted said to me,

“Naught is vanity.”

Christianna is a Christian music student who teaches violin and sings constantly. She loves poetry and the classics dearly and dabbles in writing on the side. When not singing, writing, or reading, she is dancing, contemplating the meaning of life, or trying to find ways in which she can add value to other people’s lives through her own.