Sing Psalm of Gratitude
Creator,
from desire to win all
deliver me
Creator,
from desire to take
deliver me
Creator,
from desire to create
deliver me
Creator
from desire of remembrance
deliver me
Creator,
from the fear of death
deliver me
Creator,
from the fear of pain
deliver me
Creator,
from the fear of abandonment
deliver me
Once,
my one love
I could not have known the dream
where we are equal in Your eyes
our true home
and there is no obligation
to remain where I’ve been
our shelter
no, not even a mere
one or five or ten minutes ago
in this time
18 thoughts on "Sing Psalm of Gratitude"
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
moving poem, manny!
Shucks, Manny, what a poem of a prayer. Or a prayer of a poem.
I read it both ways, as a prayer and a poem. It moves like a wave.
I love how you break the spell and move to the end with “Once/my one love…”
I love the litany structure and the gentle shift from ‘deliver me’ to that peaceful acceptance at the end.
Both lovely and intriguing.
the call and response
ritual of human prayer
turned upside down
to shake all the quarters out.
the last two stanza
bring it home with space and
TIME
I love what Jim says as I often do. Turn it upside down and shake all the quarters out, indeed.
Nice conflation of the call-and-response sermon and the contrapuntal. It works well.
love your use of space to heighten the litany form
This poem definitely wings us to prayer. Love how the poem has so many pathways to experience.
I’m grateful.
Love this! It feels very liturgical and also has the contrapuntal thing going on. Well done!
Love how “deliver me” powers the poem/prayer (I, too, see it as both) and the turn (sweetness) Once,/my one love/I could not have known the dream/where we are equal in Your eyes
I love how you shift in the last four invocations
Beautiful
W. S. Merwin wrote such line spacings in many of his works:
“nobody but me knows what they tell me
of time and honey and where you are
and the flow of water the pencil in the air”
Sorry to let AI ruin my examples, but you might find many examples in Flower
&
Hand
If you want to do some reading of them…