Your Hands

Your hands of living stone,
Have chiseled out of rock
The secrets of the earth.
The touch of green of the oak,
The bloom of the rose.

Your hands work magic,
Turning dirt to diamonds,
Charting the course of sun and moon.

You have spread the canvas of sky
And given warmth to the sun’s glow,
Fanned the winds on mountain heights.

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• James Weldon Johnson