You were dead, asleep, or praying.
The old and the young held each other
in the arms of coming and going. They bore
the seams of their lives in the shadow
of a mutual solitude. I was the witness
and the hot middle ripening over –
and after that climax, my descent.
Blood moving backward in the desert –
it will remind me of your creases,
your cheetahs – all of the times
you could have been running.
All of the times
we closed our eyes
in order to be touched.
©2010 by Jessica Ann d’Arcy
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.
– by Mary Oliver from her book ‘Dream Work’.
Slow me down Mother,
Let my spirit be reserved again,
Rooted and still as the ancient sacred trees.
Help me to stop chasing my life
And instead pour my life like a waterfall
Collecting here like a fresh pond of water
In the center of this moment.
Let me observe; be calm;
Let me know peacefulness
So that your natural messages
Are clear to me.
I ask to remember
My own true rhythm,
My own true pace,
My inner quiet as tranquil
As the green shade in the lightest breeze.
I call my own rivers back to me
Bringing in silence,
My essence on a silver wave.
Let me touch now
The serenity of the Goddess.
And may the oceans that flow
Through my soul flow calm and free.
So mote it be.
– Jessica Ann d’Arcy
©2003
Here is a beautiful prayer that conveys a positive message and is not fear-based. More information can be found on: ReligiousTolerance.org.
This is a Wiccan prayer patterned after the Shepherd Psalm. The latter is found in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) at Psalms 23:1. The author is unknown.
THE LADY’S PRAYER
The Earth is my Mother.
I shall not want.
Her hand brings forth the green pastures.
She tarries within the still waters.
She leads me in fields of fruitfulness for my Glory.
Yea, as I walk through the summer of life unto death,
I will not be afraid, for You are with me.
Your womb in the earth will enfold me.
You prepare a harvest before me and bless my home with children.
You fill me with milk and honey.
My cup overflows.
Surely, goodness and beauty will nurture me all the days of my life,
and I will become part of the earth forever.