Prayer Eyes Poem by Eric Cockrell

i learned to pray
almost as soon
as i learned to breathe...

i'm not sure there's
much difference.
sometimes i think

if you get beaten down
so much in life....
it allows you to let go

of everything you thought
you had to have, of everything
that you thought you had to be....

and you learn to feel,
and to see with new eyes,
with prayer eyes....

eyes that know the connected,
eyes that feel whether near
or distant... eyes that touch,

the unholy, the unforgiven,
the outcast, the worthless...
and find the sacredness of each.

and know every breath to be
a simple prayer... an unnamed star
on the blackest of nights!