I’ve been taking a break from my series, “Reflections on Faith and Art” to bring some other stuff important to me right now. Prayer is close to the top of that list. Granted, writing, specifically poetry, is a contemplative prayer practice, I’ve always found the writing of prayers themselves to be, well, prayer. Here is one I posted to Facebook that seemed to bless. Hence, I thought I’d bring it here in the hope that it blesses a few more. Shalom, dear friends.
Lord, show me a place to tie the ends
that beg to be braided into multiple strands
joined in singular purpose.
Lift the fog enough to see the edges of solidity,
and fray the ends of cords I only think I need
to tie my world together.
Unleash into my presumptive skies
the birds of purgation carrying with them
twigs and branches for the task.
Let me author the story of my own demise
if through my disappearance you fill
someone else’s stifling horizon.
Swell in the hopeless heart
a future of light through my abiding darkness.
Write someone else’s story
complete with satin ending on gilded pages
torn from the tattered book of my tired, half-written tale.
Finish others by my incompletion.
Airbrush another life
with the melted crayons of my own.
Sing another’s song
with notes plucked from my own
unfinished symphony.
Make yourself heard in the silence of my song.
Yes. Presumptive, demise, disappear, hopeless, dark, tired, incomplete, melted, unfinished, silent. Oh, and melted…
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That a poem prayer and prayer poem… I love that. That my life unpolished, unwritten, sometimes dark and hopeless might be the fertile ground for another to live more fully… worthy of acceptance yet difficult to accept. Prayer is, surrender is, acceptance is, self sacrifice is… the daily cross is… why do I struggle so in these?
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Hampgal, we can find all the modifiers we want and more but, at the end of it all, the modifiers becomes transformers of one thing to another: death to life, dark to light, sad to joy…
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Lesley-Anne, I so rarely ever speak in prayer anymore. It actually gets in the way. Writing is so much more…freeing as a prayer practice. So many great women and men have composed such life-changing prayers in the past, I want to copy their faith, their passion and hopefully, one day, their skill.
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And you’re so talented, too — you “silver-tongued devil”!
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“Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
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And the prize goes to…Janet Hanson for her keen biblical observations! Yup, it’s the Jesus Way.
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Love the idea of taking my melted crayons and creating a work of art!
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Oh, the wacky stuff of which God is capable and more than willing!
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