The seven poems below, Just Pray I to VII, were written when several friends bravely faced battles with cancer . . .
Just Pray I
Lord, what devastating news
Of one well-loved and beautiful friend
Who faces a diagnosis barren of optimistic promise.
It’s not that I don’t believe in all You say―
I do most ardently so.
It’s just that the journey
from Normal Days
To Heavenly Ones
That just seems unbearable and awful
And . . . I’ll dare to say it . . .
Unfair
To those who have served so lovingly
And well all their lives.
I don’t’ really mean that last statement Lord
In my deepest knowing and trusting place―
Just up front in my regular place that
Feels and loves
Where deep looks between friends
Communicate volumes of inexpressible words.
Kyrie eleison.
Just Pray II
Lord please have mercy
on the ticking minutes of this dear one’s life
and on the surrounding cocoon of love
built over years of patient understanding,
gentle days and nights,
and ever-enlarging boundaries of happiness.
What crushing blows you send Lord!
With choking voice, mystified, we whisper low,
Kyrie eleison.
Just Pray III
Lord, do you know who this person is
That you’ve called upon to carry a cross so heavy
That its weight spills over into so many surrounding lives?
Did you calculate all the ramifications and far-reaching ripples?
Were you away for a day when this Beast invaded cells deep in unknowing tissue?
You tell us to cast all our care on you because you care
clear to the cross and beyond the grave.
Dare we truly do that unflinchingly and trustingly?
Kyrie eleison.
Just Pray IV
I’m missing many beats in the Song of the Day Lord
While my heart breaks and my eyes are blinded by tears.
Kyrie eleison.
Just Pray V
Lord, gravel fills my mouth
and words that once flowed freely
are winterscape frozen
‘Neath stark
Facts of Life
That I wish I never knew
Or that would be found to be untrue.
Kyrie eleison.
Just Pray VI
Lord, how near does pain have to be
To reach into the sinews of my being
And render me helpless weak
In the face of searing news?
Kyrie eleison.
Just Pray VII
Lord, he said she was Very Brave―
When looking into death’s cave
She surprised them all
When with Slippers of Truest Courage
She tread soft and bold into the unknown
As “Ave Maria”
And “Our Father”
Echoed ahead and behind
Her angel-escorted Journey
Toward the Door with the Golden Key.
Kyrie eleison.
Nancy Gerst, 2009
The last poem, VII, in honor of Larry’s first wife Teresa,
a devout Catholic and sweet child of God
"Kyrie eleison" (which means "Lord have mercy") is used in the corporate prayers in historic rites of the Christian church. Much beautiful music has been written based on this text and combined with other parts of the Catholic and Protestant liturgies. Here are links to several:
From Ralph Vaughan Williams "Mass in G Minor"
Here's a link to an instrumental piece which helps me pray at these difficult times; Arvo Pärt's hauntingly beautiful "Spiegel im Spiegel"
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