Your Twenty-First Century Prayer Life

Your most frequent requests:

300 safe interstate miles,

night of sufficient sleep, a liner

sturdy for the class’s ocean.

Names you speak again, again—

bless Andrew, bless Lynne.

You wonder how saints

master discipline, currents

of communication in crackling

lines, sparking from sender

to receiver, back again.

You can count on one hand

when prayer blossomed

organically without desire’s

weeds crowding petals,

stealing sunlight, robbing

soil of water and life.

Your petitions persist,

abundant (overflowing)

with me, my, and I.

You forget, if you want

to live you must lose

your life.

~Nathaniel Hansen