Poems and Rhymed prayers cover

Through deadly peril sailing,driven by a sinister fate,go throngs whose strength is failing,a broken, dying freight –despairing, without mercycondemned, a foundering wreckwhose way ahead by darknessimpenetrable is blocked.But wait: a light is beckoning,a shining eye from shore.And now a voice is calling,it strikes the heart’s deep core.It rouses, wakes the dying,and stirs the inmost womb.Now withered limbs are risingto bond with life anew.And as they rise and stand again,from death’s dark pangs released,the throngs sail on toward the light,their close-bound ranks increased.The voice calls out once more –this time a cry that takes their breath:“Sail right on into death, alive,and thus be saved from death.”But courage arms their hearts anewto sail on through the wavestoward death’s night – to hell itself,to conquer o’er the grave.From death, new life arises,for God destroys at lengthdeath’s vaults; removes the boulder,and gives the weakest strength.The once-dead throngs now gatherand rise to blaze the trail.God’s call enlivens them; it leadsthem onward without fail.Sannerz, New Year’s Eve 1925Renewed, they are united –a circle firm, secure,each hand the circle grasping,by loyalty made pure.On New Year’s Eve 1925, the date of “Through deadly peril,” Eberhardbaptized his son Heinrich, Karl Keiderling, and Lotte Henze. Taking place atthe Waldquelle, a spring near Sannerz, the baptism marked the culmination ofa long and difficult spiritual battle not only for Lotte, who had beenpossessed by demons, but for the whole household at Sannerz.P O E M S & R H Y M E D P R A Y E R S:E B E R H A R D A R N O L D 60