Monday, May 16, 2005
The Prayer Tree by Michael Leunig
"the prayer tree is the 2nd book to bring together a collection of michael leunig's prayers." [ed. i hope the following extracts don't qualify as spam]
INTRODUCTION
A person kneels to contemplate a tree and to reflect the troubles and joys of life. [a description of the front cover]
* * * * * *
It is difficult to accept that life is difficult; that
love is not easy and that doubt and struggle,
suffering and failure, are inevitable for each
and every one of us.
We seek life's ease. We yearn for joy and
release, for flowers and the sun. And although
we may find these in abundance we also find
ourselves lying awake at night possessed by the
terrible fear that life is impossible. Sometimes
when we least expect it we wake up
overwhelmed by a massive sense of loneliness,
misery, chaos and death: appalled by the
agony and futility of existence.
It is difficult indeed to accept that this
darkeness belongs naturally and importantly to
our human condition and that we must live
with it and bear it. It seems so unbearable.
.
Nature*, however, requires that we have the
darkness of our painful feelings and that we
respect it and make a bold place for it in our
lives. Without its recognition and acceptance
there can be no true sense of life's great depth,
wherein lies our capacity to love, to create and
to make meaning.
[big snip]
A person kneels to contemplate a tree and to
reflect upon the troubles and joys of life. The
person imagines mornings and evenings in a
great forest of prayers, swarming and teeming
with life.
.
The person is learning how to pray.
-----------------------------
Love is born
With a dark and troubled face
When hope is dead
And in the most unlikely place
Love is born:
Love is always born.
God help us to live slowly:
To move simply:
To look softly:
To allow emptiness:
To let the heart create for us.
Amen
God help us
To rise up from our struggle.
Like a tree rises up from the soil.
Our roots reaching down to our trouble,
Our rich, dark dirt of existence.
Finding nourishment deeply
And holding us firmly.
Always connected.
Growing upwards and into the sun.
Amen
When the heart
Is cut or cracked or broken
Do not clutch it
Let the wound lie open
.
Let the wind
From the good old sea blow in
To bathe the wound with salt
And let it sting.
.
Let a stray dog lick it
Let a bird lean in the hole and sing
A simple song like a tiny bell
And let it ring
Comments:
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I adore Michael Leunig. When I first read this book I cried. I have tears now again.
# posted by 
: 9:37 PM PDT
: 9:37 PM PDT
That's very sweet. I didn't know much about him until you commented and i went and looked him up. I can see why you adore him. It takes a lot to overcome the ugly world. He's a pro. :)
trying to find one of his more elusive prayers, it's about taking back the night. Anybody heard of this?
# posted by : 12:13 AM PST
: 12:13 AM PST
hey're Taking the People's Treasure
Written By: Scott Silver, Executive Director, Wild Wilderness
http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/private.htm
"The People's Treasure is a wonderful poem by the Australian poet Michael
Leunig which beautifully describes how the privatizers are stealing what
we collectively own. It begins:
They're privatising things we own together.
And though we're still connected by the weather
They say that sharing things is now unsound.
They're lonelifying all the public spaces.
They're rationalising swags and billabongs.
They're awfulising nature's lovely places,
Dismantling the dreaming and the songs."
Wherever you look you can see the privatizers. Free-trade agreements, the
prison industrial complex, terminator seed technology and corporate run
school systems are just a few of the forms privatization is taking. It is
the impending Corporate Takeover of Nature with its associated
Privatization of Wildness where I have established my personal battle
lines in this larger fight."
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Written By: Scott Silver, Executive Director, Wild Wilderness
http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/private.htm
"The People's Treasure is a wonderful poem by the Australian poet Michael
Leunig which beautifully describes how the privatizers are stealing what
we collectively own. It begins:
They're privatising things we own together.
And though we're still connected by the weather
They say that sharing things is now unsound.
They're lonelifying all the public spaces.
They're rationalising swags and billabongs.
They're awfulising nature's lovely places,
Dismantling the dreaming and the songs."
Wherever you look you can see the privatizers. Free-trade agreements, the
prison industrial complex, terminator seed technology and corporate run
school systems are just a few of the forms privatization is taking. It is
the impending Corporate Takeover of Nature with its associated
Privatization of Wildness where I have established my personal battle
lines in this larger fight."
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