Prayers

by Peter Washington (Editor)

Like music and dance, poetry is an art that antedates our secular civilization, and it has always borne the marks of its origin as a means by which to approach and praise the divine. The poems in this volume, drawn from cultures throughout the world, testify to the power of language to embody our profoundest spiritual needs, our most sacred aspirations.

Genres: Poetry, Religion, Prayer

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 1995

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. ~SØren Kierkegaard

This collected volume of prayers and meditations describes itself as an aid to reflection and it was that for sure. This volume is organized into seven sections and named for the seven times a day for common inter-denominational patterns of prayer, Matins, Prime, Tierce, Sext, Nones, Vespers and Compline.

There were several ideas that struck me over the month in which I spent a few minutes each day contemplating words and thoughts about reaching out to the divine. There were thoughts of gratitude including these two stanzas taken from William Cowper's Exhortation to Prayer.

Have you no words? Ah, think again!
Words flow apace when you complain
And fill your fellow-creature's ear
With the sad tale of all your care.

Were half the breath thus vainly spent
To heav'n in supplication sent,
Your cheerful song would oft'ner be:
'Hear what the Lord has done for me!'

There were pleas for the strength to pursue a life more closely aligned with virtue or petitions for greater peace. In certain meditations, there were nuggets of wisdom, for instance, C. S. Lewis's observation that 'Thy will be done. But a great deal of it is to be done by God's creatures; including me. The petition, then, is not merely that I may patiently suffer God's will but also that I may vigorously do it.

Also included in this collection were prayers that offered glimpses of the kinds of elevated petitions as to demonstrate really pure-hearted attempts to reach out for the divine.

I have read a few of these volumes of Pocket Poets and I like that there is a subject or theme that is the organizing principle. It gathers contributions across time, distance, and background that offer a broader scope to find your way through. Not every included work is a masterpiece, but there is enough variety that I imagine most everyone could find value.

There is a table of contents in the front, and an Index by first lines in the back of the book. There is not however an index organized by contributor which I found myself wishing for. It seemed that more than once when I came upon a poem or meditation that I didn't care for I would look and the author would be Gerard Manley Hopkins, and that experience repeated itself enough times that I found myself interested in how many more I would come upon, but not enough to go back and count them myself. Oddly enough, my distaste has made me curious to know more about him and the environment he found himself in.

If you enjoy a thematic survey of poetry, I find these pocket poet volumes easily carried in a pocket as described and a serviceable way to add poetry and meditations to the ideas that swirl around in my head.

[Amy DiBello · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of poems from various faiths. My favorite one was Primo Levi's version of The Shema.

[Mary Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

These prayers are of many different religions which is an excellent way to present this compact volume. My favorite poems, prayers and meditations are from Emily Dickinson, St. Francis of Assisi and Julian of Norwich.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

from The Third Century


The Corn was Orient and Immortal Wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from Everlasting to Everlasting. The Dust and Stones of the Street were as Precious as GOLD. The Gates were at first the End of the World. The Green Trees when I saw them first through one of the Gates Transported and Ravished me; their Sweetnes and unusual Beauty made my Heart to leap, and almost mad with ecstasie, they were such strange and Wonderful Things: The Men! O what Venerable and Reverend Creatures did the Aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And yong Men Glittering and Sparkling Angels, and maids strange Seraphick Pieces of Life and Beauty! Boys and Girles Tumbling in the Street, and Playing, were moving Jewels. I knew not that they were Born or should Die; But all things abided Eternaly as they were in their Proper Places. Eternity was Manifest in the Light of the Day, and som thing infinit Behind evry thing appeared which talked with my Expectation and moved my Desire. The citie seemed to stand in Eden, or to be Built in Heaven. The Streets were mine, the Temple was mine, the People were mine, their Clothes and Gold and Silver were Mine, as much as their Sparkling Eyes fair skins and ruddy faces. The Skies were mine, and so were the Sun and Moon and Stars, and all the World was mine; and I the only Spectator and Enjoyer of it. I knew no Churlish Proprieties, nor Bounds nor Divisions: but all Proprieties and Divisions were mine: all Treasures and the Possessors of them. So that with much adoe I was corrupted, and made to learn the Dirty Devices of this World. Which now I unlearn, and become as it were a little Child again, that I may enter into the Kingdom of God.



Thomas Traherne (1637 - 1674)





The Windhover:

To Christ our Lord

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.



Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889)





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[Estuardo Choc Salazar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I needed more contemporary prayers, mostly are from the 17th-19th centuries which is ok for most people, so yes, they sound like the bible, in conclusion the books is mostly old English although it includes some Buddhist, Jewish, Islam and Indian prayers.