A Moment Lost In Prayer

We pray but that our souls might find release,

Some ease

From all the turmoils of this earth;

To run from chaos, search for peace,

And from such solace find rebirth.

 
 

Why, Heaven high, your gaze avert from here

And tear

The veil not from thy sacred face?

Are we not worthy, timeless eyes to bear,

Or, longing, gaze on perfect grace?

 
 

Return not thence to shadows like the day

But stay

And teach us all the mysteries

Of how to love and how to pray

Before we perish on the breeze,

                Or sink beyond the western seas

                Into the shadows far away. 

 

    I composed these verses quite a few months ago while going through no small amount of stress, mostly self-induced. My goal at the time wasn't so much to write anything acceptable, but just to vent my recurring negative thoughts and emotions onto paper. Well, more precisely, onto my iPhone, where most of this poem was composed (fun fact: the first draft was written in about 15 minutes on a scissor lift suspended about 40 feet in the air). It isn't an intricate poem. Honestly, it isn't even one of my favourites, but it expresses my entire year (2010) almost perfectly. Hopefully in the passing of this new year, I shall grow wise enough to at least partially answer some of the questions I have. Maybe I'll write something more about this in the future…