Somewhere Over the Rainbow, E.Y. Harburg
Master of beauty, John Berryman
Days Pass, Chaim Stern
Miracles, Walt Whitman (excerpts)
Pied Beauty, Gerard M. Hopkins
The True Love, David Whyte
It is Not We Alone Who Pray, Micah Berditchev
Miracles Do Happen, Anonymous
Surprise! Surprise!, Anonymous
Prayers for the Earth – Keeping Quiet, Pablo Neruda
The Same Stream of Life, Rabindranath Tagore
Take My Hand, Precious Lord, Rev. Thomas Dorsey
We Pray, Richard Levy
Amazing Grace, John Newton
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
by E.Y. Harburg
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Master of beauty
(Eleven Addresses to the Lord, Section 1)*
by John Berryman
Master of beauty, craftsman of the snowflake,
inimitable contriver,
endower of Earth so gorgeous & different from the boring Moon,
thank you for such, as it is my gift.
I have made up a morning prayer to you
containing with precision everything that most matters.
‘According to Thy will’ the thing begins.
It took me off & on two days. It does not aim at eloquence.
You have come to my rescue again & again
in my impassable, sometimes despairing years.
You have allowed my brilliant friends to destroy themselves
and I am still here, severely damaged, but functioning.
Unknowable, as I am unknown to my guinea pigs:
How can I ‘love’ you?
I only as far as gratitude & awe
confidently & absolutely go.
I have no idea whether we live again.
It doesn’t seem likely
from either the scientific or the philosophical point of view
but certainly all things are possible to you,
and I believe as fixedly in the Resurrection-appearances to Peter
and to Paul
as I believe I sit in this blue chair.
Only that may have been a special case
to establish their initiatory faith.
Whatever your end may be, accept my amazement.
May I stand until death forever at attention
for any your least instruction or enlightenment.
I even feel sure you will assist me again, Master of insight & beauty.
* “Master of beauty” from “Eleven Addresses to the Lord” from COLLECTED POEMS: 1937-1971 by John Berryman. Copyright © 1989 by Kate Donahue Berryman. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. CAUTION: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be secured with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Days Pass
by Chaim Stern
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Miracles (excerpts)
by Walt Whitman
Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night
with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet
and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring . . . .
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same . . . .
To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim–the rocks–the motion of the waves–the
ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?
Pied Beauty
by Gerard M. Hopkins
Glory be, O God, for dappled things —
For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced——fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
The True Love
by David Whyte
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It is Not We Alone Who Pray
by Micah Berditchev
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Miracles Do Happen
Author Anonymous
Miracles can happen any place,
any day from Beijing to Argentina
I heard of a man who threw his crutches away
And did the Macarena.
Joseph diagnosed old Pharaoh’s dream,
Robert Fulton suddenly invented steam,
And both George Bushes got to be chief supreme,
Miracles do happen.
Moses goes and parts the raging Sea,
Manna falls from heaven as the Hebrews flee
And that’s the way that matzo balls came to be
Miracles do happen.
Shakespeare’s classic plays and Dickens’ prose,
Mickey Mantle’s forearm and Nijinsky’s toes,
And what of Michael Jackson’s most recent nose?
Miracles do happen.
Walls came tumbling down at Jericho,
Samson smashed up temples when his hair would grow,
And Anna Nicole Smith had a TV show
Miracles do happen.
They say Athena sprang from Zeus’
head and Lazarus was resurrected from the dead,
Well, perhaps I’ll get invited to someone’s bed
Miracles do happen.
Miracles have happened and miracles happen still,
So just because nobody ever loved me Doesn’t mean nobody will.
For miracles do happen Yes, miracles do happen.
Surprise! Surprise!
Author Anonymous
I dreamt death came the other night
And heaven’s gate swung wide;
With kindly grace an angel came
To usher me inside.
Yet there to my astonishment
Stood folks I’d known on earth,
Some I had judged as quite unfit
Or of but little worth.
Indignant words rose to my lips
But never were set free;
For every face showed stunned surprise
No One expected me!
Prayers for the Earth – Keeping Quiet
by Pablo Neruda
(translated)
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The Same Stream of Life
by Rabindranath Tagore
(translated)
The same stream of life
that runs through my veins
runs through the world
and dances in rhythmic measure.
It is the same life
that shoots in joy
through the dust of the earth
into numberless blades of grass,
and breaks into tumultuous waves
of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked
in the ocean cradle
of birth and death,
in ebb and in flow.
My limbs are made glorious
by the touch of this world of life;
and my pride is from
the life throb of ages
dancing in my blood this moment.
Take My Hand, Precious Lord
by Rev. Thomas Dorsey
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We Pray
by Richard Levy
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Amazing Grace
by John Newton
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.