Christian Wiman (b. 1966)

Prayer

For all
the pain

passed down
the genes

or latent
in the very grain

of being;
for the lordless

mornings,
the smear

of spirit
words intuit

and inter;
for all

the nightfall
neverness

inking
into me

even now,
my prayer

is that a mind
blurred

by anxiety
or despair

might find
here

a trace
of peace.

From Once in the West: Poems (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014)

Dan Clendenin: dan@journeywithjesus.net