Friday, July 6, 2012

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.

                              

  

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