Sunday lessons

"Prayer"


 Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
 utters itself. So, a woman will lift
 her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
 at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.


 Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
 enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
 then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
 in the distant Latin chanting of a train.


 Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
 console the lodger looking out across
 a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
 a child's name as though they named their loss.


 Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer -
 Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.


- Carol Ann Duffy



I can't stop this urgent feeling that there is a lot of good left in me to do.
I used to find this feeling scary. I'm glad that I have grown to find it exciting and hopeful.
Because there really is so much to do.