The prayer

The prayer                                                                                       

The praying is the prayer.

The heart’s articulacy is the prayer;

 

kneeling and the folding of hands.

Our nakedness and need is the prayer –

from that first disintegrating morning,

ages past, ‘til this evening’s calm, gathering dusk,

our nakedness and need is the prayer 

but, o pilgrims, only a handful,

the truest heroes of our farthest-fetched tales

ever dare quiet their souls

long enough to listen for God’s reply –

to risk hearing the answer

roll across God’s vast dominion

or, well up, unsheltered, in the hollows of the heart;

to risk hearing not the Word nor Silence,

but a terrifying, unequivocal Absence.

O child of God, risk all for the courage

to learn the truth of God’s love.