Monday, November 9, 2015

All Souls' Prayers

                                                          Love is strong as death...
                                                        The flash of it is a flash of fire,
                                                        a flame of the Lord himself.
                                                                                                    Song of Songs 8


                                                          The jarred flames,
                                                          no bigger than our hearts,
                                                          are carried over the asylum
                                                          of loss,

                                                          down the long aisles of our grief:
                                                          thin glass wings
                                                          fluttering against the inevitable
                                                          that comes all the same;

                                                          rising out of ashes,
                                                          Blessed Mary's altar,
                                                          as great birds of fire
                                                          carrying our heavy prayers

                                                          into the blinding, boundless flare 
                                                          of His brilliant heart:
                                                          the burning crucible
                                                          of love.










1 comment:

  1. Mm. I love this. I love poems about prayer candles. I love the intensity of this piece that comes, I think, from the yoking of our prayer-candle-flames and God's sacred/burning/"brilliant" heart ("burning crucible/of love."). To be yoked like that, to feel yoked to God in this way is a great comfort. I love thinking about how something as light as flames can carry something as heavy as grief, and I love thinking about prayers as "heavy.". I love, too, the linking of our heart in the beginning to God's heart at the end and how prayer does this. This poem, even in its sometimes challenging subject, is a joy to read. I'm so happy to know it. Blessing to you always!

    ReplyDelete