What is Prayer? A poem

— For Grace Community

*

The interception of a

message or action

to communicate our intentions;

an intersection of

the earthly and divine;

prayer requests turn into

the speaker owning their

desires, whether they be

worldy, for another, or for ourselves.

We escape and become

mindful, we leave this world

and enter the state of another.

If God’s name is YHWH

which is the sound of a breath,

then prayer can be

just our taking in and

blowing out air, intentionally.

If God is the space between

us, the space between our atoms,

then we are praying to

the essence of the spirit

of everything connected,

everywhere.

Pleas to ancestors can take

us to where we felt them

with us the most

and if prayer can be more

than just talking or thinking,

our prayers can be in our

doing, gardening in the same

place with the same plants

as a family member,

baking a loved one’s recipe,

creating art and music

as a way of connecting

and communicating.

Can we not listen in prayer —

to music, to silence, to nature,

to each other’s pleas

and gratitudes?

Prayer is not religion,

does not need to be taught

or spoken a certain way;

prayer is a meeting and

a doing and a listening

and a being and a way

of connecting and

communicating with the

spirit that resides

in each of us.

*

3–20–22

TJSEP