In Lock 6 by Morley L. Swart

Listen to In Lock 6 recited by Bishop Gerard Bergie

1944

Here where the steel cable crosses
     With its slow moving car overhead,
Here ’mid the bellowing bosses,
     Where words of irreverence are said,—

Here where I labour for wages
     My physical life to sustain,
I turn to the Book’s sacred pages
     And know of a spiritual gain.

Here ’mid rancorous voices
     Of those who choose darkness and night,
My spirit unfettered rejoices
     In visions of splendour and light;

Here where with no one to love me,
     I toil through the slow moving hours,
But think of the green earth above me,
     And dream of the fragrance of flowers.

Here ’mid gigantic construction
     Surmounting a barrier old,
I see over human obstruction
     Divine grace and power unfold.

Here where the steel drill engages
     The rock that the dynamite jars,
I hark to the Voice of the ages,
     I sing me a song of the stars.

Here where from hard sense of duty
     The path of the toiler I’ve trod,
I’ve dwelt in the realm of beauty,
     As fair as the gardens of God.

---

Source: Wartime Melodies and Songs of the Common Way. Merritton: Ted Thompson Printing, 1944, 70.

Published in Spirit of the Big Ditch: The Story of the Welland Canals in Pictures, Poems and Songs. Compiled, edited and annotated by Robert Ratcliffe Taylor. St. Catharines: The Historical Society of St. Catharines, 2024