I thought that it would be fitting to share with you this lovely poem by Professor Joel M. Toledo entitled “A Prayer” since it speaks to the gleeful voice amongst most of us as we celebrate Christmas in two days’ time. It encourages us to raise our eyes heavenward in conversation with our Creator – our hearts filled with the spirit of Gladness. This poem is taken from Joel M. Toledo’s book Chiaroscuro.
Poetry Friday is hosted this week by author Doraine Bennett from Dori Reads. Head on over there to check out more Yuletide-inspired posts.
A Prayer Or something like it. Maybe a hint of faith: a faint melody working its way to meaning, purposeful, wafting past the heresies of the long day, into the inner spaces. Often one cannot help listening. The surrender to sound, taking it in like air. It makes sense, something we can believe in. So we fill in the gaps. We measure the instances of rhythm. We don’t question the coordinates of music. In the same way, we have the capacity for belief, for such immense love. The strains of guitar strings, the patterns of feeling. All around, things are being moved by some familiar tune. Just this evening, rousing to Mr. Mister singing Kyrie from a radio somewhere, I caught myself staring out the window: lightning breaking the cover of clouds, thunder drumming the air like intervals of divinity. Kyrie Eleison down the road that I must travel. Kyrie Eleison through the darkness of the night… And the soul, the soul, whispers the wind, travels in the firmament, elusive, displaced. But the body persists–the heart beating, beating, keeping in step with our human cadence.
Well, first of all I learned something, Myra, knowing how ‘kyrie Eleison’ is translated, certainly an important part of this poem, & how beautiful. That final verse is wonderful to contemplate, the two parts of a human being working together and anchored by the body. Thank you!
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Hi Linda! I often listen to this song as well – but never realized that the lyric itself was the translation for Kyrie Eleison. 🙂 Happy Holidays to you and your family! 🙂 Sending you warm hugs and well wishes for the coming year.
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A beautiful poem. I love this line: “lightning breaking the cover of clouds, thunder drumming the air like intervals of divinity.” Kyrie Eleison, my poetry Friday friend. And Merry Christmas.
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Hi Dori! Merry Merry Christmas to you too and a Happy New Year! 🙂
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“We don’t question the coordinates of music.
In the same way, we have the capacity for belief,
for such immense love.”
Such a lovely and haunting poem. The snow falling down your blog is so peaceful and serene (all we have here is rain) and this poem with its whispers of truth: “A Prayer…Or something like it.”
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Hi Mary Lee, it was Iphigene who made the snowflakes fall – she’s wonderful with all the techie stuff. 🙂 I’m glad you loved the poem.
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I need some help.
What is the tone of this poem? I mean, if you deliver this poem orally, what emotion should you take out?
Thank you so much!
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Hi Claudine, I’ve always felt that the poem carries with it a quiet, melancholic, pensive, reflective tone. That is how I would read it perhaps. Thanks for dropping by!
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