After George Herbert

 Prayer from the first, a new born baby’s cry

And in the dying soul’s departing sigh.

Defibrillation, jolting us to start

The blood of life now beating through our heart.

Prayer in the desert blooming all alone

A rose whose sweetest scent to heaven is blown.

Prayer in the hubbub, linking all in one

As each lone floret leans toward the Sun.

Prayer in the groaning of a world in pain

The darkness weeping for the dawn again.

Prayer in my faltering words of guilt and shame

The quiet whisper of a healing name.

A living water welling up from deep

A soil that nurtures roots through winter’s sleep

A fire that blazes out yet brings no death

A breeze, a gale, the sharing of a breath.

Prayer at the cross’s foot, an agony

That dives down deeper than I’ll ever be.

Prayer at its height that, jabbing at the sky

Pierces the Father’s heart with my heart’s cry.

Prayer reaching out, a cosmos to embrace

And gather all its prodigals in grace.

Prayer in the depth, height, length and breadth of love

Prayer of the One in whom we live and move.

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This poem is very cheekily following in the footsteps of George Herbert's masterpiece, Prayer, by exploring some of the infinite variety of encounters with God signified by that deceptively simple six letter word. George Herbert compresses his reflections into the mere 14 lines of a sonnet and has many dazzling insights that I can't aspire to: but I hope that I have been authentic in evoking experiences that are meaningful for me and for people I know. For ease of reference I have printed Herbert's poem below - I hope you find it as inspiring as I do!

Prayer the Church's banquet, angel's age,

God's breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;

Engine against the'Almighty, sinner's tower,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days-world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted Manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well dressed,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,

The land of spices, something understood.