From the mountaintops I have praised Your name,
Now from this dark valley I will cry out the same.
Heavy and murky are the clouds – is this my last stand?
Tumultuous are the storms that stir in these depths oppressive;
Surely a flood will overwhelm me in this grievous land.
Howbeit, when the waters recede, washed part way up the mountainside I shall be.
And then in climbing I shall ascend above those clouds, low-hanging clouds of the hollow of despair, Steeped in overbearing darkness. (Stifling darkness, how thick the air!)
But You, Spirit of the Living God, shall give me endurance that I sink not,
And strength for the climb to reach the peak so beautiful.
Where I shall overlook a greater depth, a darker valley, with striving fraught;
Yet exalting the name of the Lord for the higher mountain I will see from this coming pinnacle,
Holding it fast in my mind for those black days
That I cannot see because of the clouds in the valley always.
From the highest height, from the deepest depth, let my mouth bring forth praise.

(March 6,2005)

David Lovell

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-hollow-of-despair/