Litany Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

At its wits' end, the soul clings to prayer
as a drought-stricken wilderness clings to life.

Lord in your mercy …

Striving, we waver:
wavering we encounter the shadow world.
Duende solo nos hace viver.*
In fertile uncertainty
the soul flowers like a desert plant
at the merest hint of moisture.
Comfort with terror our mortal afternoons.**

Lord in your mercy …

In material uncertainty show us spiritual certainty:
in spiritual uncertainty may strangers show us love.
If we already know how,
the pregnant darkness has nothing to teach …
only at our wits end
is the mind freed from gravity.

… hear our prayer.

Sun and shade - tears and laughter -
ebb and flow - erection and entropy:
life and death are not alternatives;
living and life, dying and death are not synonyms.

Lord in your mercy …

From the stillness of tide-turn, let us flow
back into life, unafraid of the next 24
hours. Give us renewed will to see the grain
of events, with freedom to respond from the changelessness
of inner truth, and wisdom to work with
or against it to reach the best outcome.

… hear our prayer.

Lord in your great mercy …

Give us trust in the numinous otherness within.
Give us the courage to enter that darkness
where you are fully me.
Teach us a song of joy under the whip.
Give strength of faith in face of death.
Let our love melt opposition.
Dissolve the illusions we project onto others
and reveal our common humanity.
Take us beyond words to our natural state of
co-dependency with all created matter.

… grant us your peace.

My soul there is a country far beyond the stars …***
that country is compassion where far beyond all wars
we seek for common purpose, and find in place of strife
a sense of resolution that yields a richer life.
You are Us (that is your destination)-
We are You (that is our journey)-
Be both beacon and bridge over troubled water.

Amen.


18/6/13
* Mystery alone makes us live. Lorca
** Updike
*** Vaughan