A Prayer to Endure – a poem by Alfred Fournier

A Prayer to Endure


Whatever calls me by name
may I answer
filling purposes I may never understand
each dream unremembered
flowing through my blood
each assassination
rinsed from my eyes
circling down the drain.

Whatever I gather from the gutter
may I make of it a kite,
a song, a shadowbox of flower buds.
For each ending I endure
may I walk forth
my every heavy step 
pushing new seeds into earth.
Arms outstretched, palms open.
Ready to lend a hand where I can.

Alfred Fournier is the author of A Summons on the Wind (2023, Kelsay Books) and King of Beers (March 2025, Rinky Dink Press). His poems have appeared in Amethyst Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Indianapolis Review, Cagibi, The Sunlight Press and elsewhere. He lives in the foothills of South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona, with his remarkable wife and daughter and two birdwatching cats.