The Unclouded Day

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Dadaab mass grave. Children have walked for weeks across the desert to get to Dadaab, and many perish on the way. Others have died shortly after arrival. On the edge of the camp, a young girl stands amid the freshly made graves of 70 children, many of whom died of malnutrition: photo by Andy Hall/Oxfam, 25 July 2011 (Oxfam East Africa)

O they tell me of a home far beyond the skies,
O they tell me of a home far away;
O they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise,
O they tell me of an unclouded day.

Sunlight shining through sequoias, Muir Woods: photo by Richs5812, 5 January 2007

O the land of cloudless day,
O the land of an unclouded day,
O they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise,
O they tell me of an unclouded day.

Hot spring, Leirhnjúkur, Iceland: photo by Andreas Tile, 1996

O they tell me of a home where my friends have gone,
O they tell me of that land far away,
Where the tree of life in eternal bloom
Sheds its fragrance through the unclouded day.

Tomb of Thutmosis III. Scene: The King is fed from the Holy Tree (Lady of the Sycamore): Theban, c. 1500-1450 BCE

O they tell me of a King in His beauty there,
And they tell me that mine eyes shall behold
Where He sits on the throne that is whiter than snow,
In the city that is made of gold.

Genie with a poppy flower: relief from the Palace of King Sargon II at Dur Sharrukin in Assyria (now Khorsabad in Iraq), 716-713 BC; discovered in excavations of Paul-Emile Botta, 1843-1844: photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, 2006 (Department of Oriental Antiquities, Musée du Louvre, Paris)

O they tell me that He smiles on His children there,
And His smile drives their sorrows all away;
And they tell me that no tears ever come again
In that lovely land of unclouded day.

Rainclouds gathering over Bareina, desert village in southern Mauretania, West Africa: photo by Ferdinand Reus, 2006

The Unclouded Day: Josiah K. Alwood, c. 1880