American Life in PoetryA feature provided by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006 |
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The title of this
beautiful poem by Edward Hirsch contradicts the poem, which is indeed a
prayer. Hirsch lives in New York and is president of the John Simon
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, one of our country’s most distinguished
cultural endowments. |
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I Was Never Able To Pray
Wheel me down to the shore where the lighthouse was abandoned and the moon tolls in the rafters.
Let me hear the wind paging through the trees and see the stars flaring out, one by one, like the forgotten faces of the dead.
I was never able to pray, but let me inscribe my name in the book of waves
and then stare into the dome of a sky that never ends and see my voice sail into the night. |
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
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