Poems as Prayers (for Alan Kaufman) ~ William Taylor Jr
You say poems
are prayers,
and I’ve always
imagined them so.
But prayers not scraping
for favors from a bitter god
of tawdry heavens
and slaughterhouse hells,
but prayers to ourselves
and our fellow creatures
upon the earth,
prayers not asking
forgiveness but offering;
released like magic children
into the lonely city
where they drift
through streets
and alleys,
up and down the hills
with the fog
where someone may see
and understand
and maybe be a little bit saved
as they go about their way
in this church of a life,
this commune of the spirit.
Advertisements
