I Look for You

I look for you early,

my rock and my refuge,

offering you worship

morning and night;

before your vastness

I come confused

and afraid, for you see

the thoughts of my heart.

What could the heart

and tongue compose,

or spirit’s strength

within me to suit you?

But song soothes

and so I’ll give praise

to your being as long

as your breath-in-me moves.

Copyright Credit: Shelomo Ibn Gabirol, "I Look for You" from The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain 950-1492 translated by Peter Cole. Copyright © 2007 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.