Prayer

This poem was written by Connie TerMaat and published in the Fall 1950 Calvin College Literary Review. It was one of the six poems that won him the top prize in the Eerdmans Literary Awards competition.

Prayer

God, we who travel in the night upon the lake
Have loved the vastness of our world.
We have seen Thy hand
And even in the stars, Thy face.
We thank Thee in the times of storm
For harbor lights, the red and white
That guide us from the violent dark;
We of little faith who dare not tread
The waves which bare the heavy moon,
The golden footsteps of the sun,
We who have entered harbors during a storm
To find the tumult of great emptiness,
We who must so soon depart the lake,
We ask for lights to leads us home,
To guide us to that port where seagulls cry
And circling, sing not loneliness, but love.

Connie TerMaat 1929-2009

Cornelius John “Connie” TerMaat, age 80, of River Falls died Wednesday, June 10, 2009. Connie was born in Arpin, WI to Henry and Bertha TerMaat but grew up in Sheboygan, WI with sisters, Hattie, Margaret and Marion. There he developed an abiding love of Lake Michigan lighthouses and tugboats and an interest in the history of the Dutch American community in Wisconsin. Connie taught English at University of Wisconsin-River Falls from 1965 to 1989 including a stint as department chair. A voracious reader, he especially loved Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, John Updike, Peter DeVries, Patrick O’Brian, detective fiction and Winnie-the-Pooh. Friends and family looked forward each year to his witty Christmas letters. An avid vegetable gardener (at one time maintaining seven compost piles), he enjoyed puttering around with tools and scrapwood and converting his crops into wine. He was unfailingly loyal to the daily crossword, cookies, ice cream and the Chicago Cubs. He spent as much time as possible at the family cabin on Deer Lake in Burnett County fishing for crappies and watching for herons and loons. As a young man he won prizes for his poetry and continued to write both comic verse and meditations on nature. From his 1950 poem, “Prayer”: “We who must so soon depart the lake,/We ask for lights to lead us home./To guide us to that port where seagulls cry/And circling, sing not loneliness, but love.” Connie is survived by his wife of 57 years, Grace TerMaat of River Falls, children Chris (Nancy) of Naperville, IL, Martha of River Falls and Peter (Joan) of North Oaks, MN, and sister Margaret Eggebeen of Sheboygan. The accompanying photo was a favorite of his grandchildren Sara, John, Eric, Jason, Morgan, Mary and Max. Reading was Connie’s passion. Contributions in his honor may be made to the River Falls Public Library. Send your thoughts to memories@uptocode.com or post them to http://termaats.blogspot.com