Poet and writer for children and adults

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Prayer for the New Year

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Bless the “new “  in this New Year, please.
Help us know it as “renewal.”
Renew all through the great healing
we can give to one another
with authentic full attention,
greetings, gestures, hugs, and handshakes;
treasures we are waiting for.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Help us be sources of comfort
for those seared by loss and longing,
haunted by despair and distance,
cries unanswered, words unspoken.
Help us fill the wells of heartbreak
and release love’s flow again.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Help us come to know what need IS;
how it reaches from the shadows,
out of hungers, out of troubles, out of fears
that blind – it stumbles; not toward
things, but toward their stewards.
Teach us how to truly give.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Help us yield our understandings.
Help us recognize our insights
(our assured and firm conclusions),
are no larger than what we’ve lived – –
and make room for truths as valid
and real in others as our own.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Turn our eyes to focus forward,
shirking blame and retribution
for the vision of becoming
people who know of their context
here, in this shared sphere of wonder;
individuals together, choosing harmony as One.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Renew our health, our strength and vigor,
mend our spirits, build compassion
for each other; our awareness
of the sacred gift of being
in the presence of another.

Give us each other,
please?

Renew “us.”

 

To view a live reading of this poem,  go to:
The Landscapes of Poetry Holiday Reading 2020: https://youtu.be/vxuaHFLbW4E

 

 

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