Perhaps because I come from Indiana and I like to write,
James Whitcomb Riley, called the Hoosier poet, is a favorite poet of mine.
(All Indiana folks are called Hoosiers).
I have always been grateful that my niece, Susan Manson Reynolds, finally helped me learn that James Whitcomb Riley had written the poem "Prayer Perfect." Our church choir at Fourth Avenue Methodist, a small neighborhood church, sang "Prayer Perfect" often, but no one knew the author. (I was one of two twelve year/old members in the choir). This is how I learned who the poet was.
I went to the bookstore to see my niece, Susan, in her new job, and of course, to look at books. "Out of the blue" Susan asked me, "Do you like the poetry of James Whitcomb Riley? We have a new book of his poems." She took the book from the shelf, opened it, and there, in plain sight, was the poem, "Prayer Perfect". There was the author I had searched for and had never found. I keep Riley's book of poems near at hand now.
Prayer Perfect
by James Whitcomb Riley
Dear Lord! Kind Lord!
Gracious Lord! I pray
Thou wilt look on all I love.
Tenderly today.
Weed their hearts of weariness;
Scatter every care
Down a wake of angel-wings,
Winnowing the air.
Bring unto the sorrowing
All release from pain;
Let the lips of laughter
Overflow again;
And with all the needy
O divide, I pray,
This vast treasure of content
That is mine today!
------James Whitcomb Riley, 1880
God gives us so many gifts from writers, from nature, and in our days. I wonder whether we recognize what those gifts are, and remember to say "Thank you?"
I am deeply grateful that our Creator provides for us and for every creation: the world, a home in which to live.
Collected by marylee manson armour
Writing Added to and revised October 31, 2006,
and on November 25,2006
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
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