"Poems, Prayers, & Promises" #5

Featuring Jeanne Lohmann, Yo-Yo Ma, and Wu Tong

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.

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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.

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Enter the music

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Read the poem

I invite you to read this poem twice—aloud, at least once. You may also listen to Jeanne Lohmann’s reading of the poem, perhaps with your eyes closed. (To find the recording at the link, scroll down beneath the the text of the appropriate poem and press the “▶️” or “play” icon. Note: there’s a difference of one word between the text and the reading, plus the formatting of the poem at the link isn’t as presented below.)

PRAISE WHAT COMES
Jeanne Lohmann

surprising as unplanned kisses, all you haven’t deserved
of days and solitude, your body’s immoderate good health
that lets you work in many kinds of weather. Praise

talk with just about anyone. And quiet intervals, books
that are your food and your hunger; nightfall and walks
before sleep. Praising these for practice, perhaps

you will come at last to praise grief and the wrongs
you never intended. At the end there may be no answers
and only a few very simple questions: did I love,

finish my task in the world? Learn at least one
of the many names of God? At the intersections,
the boundaries where one life began and another

ended, the jumping-off places between fear and
possibility, at the ragged edges of pain,
did I catch the smallest glimpse of the holy?


(found at this link, though formatted differently)

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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 poem doesn’t make use of the word “prayer.” But “praise,” especially as used here, seems like a form of prayer. What connection(s), if any, do you draw between praise and prayer?

• The poet begins this poem by naming things that are easy to receive and praise, then moves to naming the more difficult—“grief and the wrongs / you never intended.” Write such a “praise list” for yourself, moving from the easy to the difficult.

• Reflect on the questions that the poem asks but doesn’t answer. Which of these questions, if any, especially resonates with you right now? What additional questions preoccupy your spirit?

• How comfortable are you, asking questions of your life that may be unanswerable? Or, giving up the need for answers, to simply live the questions?

• Does your consideration of this poem move you to make any kind of promise to yourself or someone else?

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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.)

These materials are for educational purposes only. Not for sale or reproduction.

Join us ☀️September 5 (NOT August 5) for “Rafter Refuge”! (My mistake, initially announcing the wrong date.)

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.

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Questions? Never hesitate to contact me.

See you tomorrow.