"Poems, Prayers, & Promises" #9

Featuring Marie Howe and Alexis Ffrench

Aug 11, 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 Marie Howe reading the poem, perhaps with your eyes closed. (At the link, click the blue ▶️ or “listen” button, to the right of the title.)

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published


PRAYER
Marie Howe

Every day I want to speak with you. And every day something more important
calls for my attention—the drugstore, the beauty products, the luggage

I need to buy for the trip.
Even now I can hardly sit here

among the falling piles of paper and clothing, the garbage trucks outside
already screeching and banging.

The mystics say you are as close as my own breath.
Why do I flee from you?

My days and nights pour through me like complaints
and become a story I forgot to tell.

Help me. Even as I write these words I am planning
to rise from the chair as soon as I finish this sentence.


(from The Kingdom of Ordinary Time, 2008)

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!

Who is the “you” of this poem—for the poet? For yourself?
This is another poem in which the speaker is having trouble praying (or meditating, or centering, or . . . ). How would you describe this speaker’s difficulty? Is it one that you can relate to?
Unpack the words “Help me.” In the poem, what help is being asked for, and from whom? In your own practice of prayer, what might you need help with, and from whom?
Invest your attention in these lines: “My days and nights pour through me like complaints / and become a story I forgot to tell.” What do these words mean to you?
How many times during this session of the Deep Dive have you thought about other things you should be doing, or what you’re planning to do next? 🙂 (It’s okay if you did. It’s good that you noticed!)
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 ☀️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.