The masterful, Uber talented @davidoyelowo reads ‘Praying’ by Mary oliver.
He is dedicating this beauty of a poem to @childrenshungerfund a wonderful charity that has dedicated itself to feeding and aiding those children and families experiencing poverty around the world. 🙌🕊
Here’s the prescription as it reads in @thepoetrypharmacy @thepoetryremedy.
Condition: Need for Mindfulness.
Prayer, to many in our secular age, has become a dirty word. The concept is dismissed as fusty or naïve; the practice even more so. And yet, as the popularity of meditation and mindfulness soars, there seems to be a collective longing for a moment of quiet in our busy lives. A moment in which another voice- an internal whisper, all too easily drowned out behind the sirens and chatter of modern life- may speak.
Mark Oakley, a former canon at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, wrote a wonderful book about how- to him- liturgy was poetry. Across religions, he says, the devotional words which we chant, memorise or sing are a king of poetry that links us to the divine. In the case of many religions, those words can be in a language that the worshippers themselves don’t even understand, and yet somehow their cadence is enough to transport us.
It’s not only the religious who can gain from prayer, just as it’s not only the religious who can appreciate a spectacular cathedral, mosque or temple. Prayer is a constant that run through all human civilisations, and it’s there for a reason. In this poem, Mary Oliver reminds us that we are all in need of a doorway into thanks, and a way of relating to the world without our egos. Having found that, we can allow ourselves- even if only for a moment- to feel a quiet gratitude for all the small moments of grace that we encounter daily. We can thank the world around us for containing blue irises, and weeds, and small stones.
Stop in the street, in the garden, on the train. Pay attention. Put together a few simple words that feel right. If you’re very quiet, and very lucky, you might just hear a voice whispering back to you.
Thank you so much David for your beautiful reading!! 🙏🏻❤️👏❤️
