"Poems, Prayers, & Promises" #15

Featuring Diane Ackerman, Luke Faulkner, Alix Vaillot-Szwarc, and Özgür Kaya

Aug 21, 2023

Welcome to another day of “Poems, Prayers, & Promises”

Remember, you’re the co-creator of this dive. Do as much or as little as you’d like, when you’d like, how you’d like, with the materials I provide. Just keep gentle faith with yourself.

Set your intention

Take a moment to name the primary intention you have for this month-long deep dive and/or this particular session. Take a quiet moment to center yourself in that intention.

Enter the music

Read the poem

I invite you to read this poem twice—aloud, at least once. You may also listen to Diane Ackerman’s reading of the poem, perhaps with your eyes closed. (Video should begin automatically at the point of the poem, but if it doesn’t, drag the slider to 1:14.)

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published


SCHOOL PRAYER
Diane Ackerman

In the name of the daybreak
and the eyelids of morning
and the wayfaring moon
and the night when it departs,

I swear I will not dishonor
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder,
as an architect of peace.

In the name of the sun and its mirrors
and the day that embraces it
and the cloud veils drawn over it
and the uttermost night
and the male and the female
and the plants bursting with seed
and the crowning seasons
of the firefly and the apple,

I will honor all life
—wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell—on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars.


(from I Praise My Destroyer, 2000)

Contemplate/Create

Use any of these questions however you wish—e.g., as openings for meditation or prayer, as prompts for journaling or poetry-writing, as sparks for drawing or painting, as catalysts for change-making . . . You may also ignore my questions altogether to go off in other directions!

This is a secular prayer in the form of a pledge or a vow—namely, to protect and honor all forms of life. Would you like to create such a prayer-pledge of your own?
What significance do you attach to the title?
This prayer is prayed “in the name of” no deity but many things in the natural world. Identify them. Individually and/or collectively, what do they represent to you? Would you care to add to the list?
To you, what does it mean to “honor all life”? How might you live this out today, offering yourself as one of the roles in the second stanza? I.e., affirm way(s) that you serve as a “guardian of nature,” a “healer of misery,” a “messenger of wonder,” and/or an “architect of peace.” Also identify and celebrate/give thanks for some of the people you know who tend to serve the world in these ways.
Does your consideration of this poem move you to make any kind of promise to yourself or someone else?

Want to visit with other Rafters in the Deep Dive?

Here are two options: either leave a comment on this post using the button, or join the chat thread dedicated to this Deep Dive. (Note: if you haven’t created a Substack profile yet, you’ll be asked to do so before you can comment or chat.)

Join us on September 5 for “Rafter Refuge”!

6:30-8:00PM Central (7:30 ET, 5:30 MT, 4:30 PT)

Let’s close this Deep Dive with a time of sharing. Come and reflect with other Rafters on “Poems, Prayers, & Promises.” Registration is required for this celebration.