L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle died Thursday at the age of 88. A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters (somehow I never managed to read the final sequel, An Acceptable Time, or the other books in the related O'Keefe series) were the inspiration of a great deal of thought about time, friendship, and the like in my childhood.

In this fateful hour,
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness:
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.