The Alchemy of Prayer – a poem by Frank Desiderio

The Alchemy of Prayer

Take your raw animal anger 
of a shovel struck snake 
coiled and ready to strike

and redirect it 
an aikido of the spirit,
that is the alchemy of prayer.

Take any version of eros
or any fear, or any dull grief
let it rise from below your belly. 

Let it rise up and out. 
Soften your knees, breathe. 
Each steady breath fuels the alchemy.

Now, hold in your heart someone you love
a magnetic pole to ground you 
to the Holy Love that surrounds you, 
to merge in your heart and intensify 
to ignite tips of flame that glow beyond you.

In the sweatshop of time this is our work
to take the heat, pass it through prayer,
refine it into the heart’s compassion.
 

Frank Desiderio, a poet, pastor, and TV producer has served as a campus minister, retreat director and author (Can You Let Go of a Grudge, Paulist Press, 2014). He produced the film Judas for ABC TV (2004) and several documentaries for cable television. His poems have appeared in the Spring Hill Review, Windhover, Ars Medica, Moving Image: Poetry Inspired by Film among other journals. He and his sister, Mimi Moriarty, authored the chapbook Sibling Revery (Finishing Line Press, 2012). Currently he lives in Manhattan.