A Kind of Prayer

The Rev. Malcolm Guite continues to explore George Herbert's long, lyrical poem, Prayer, from Malcolm's edited book of sonnets, After Prayer

A Kind Of Tune

A kind of tune, a music everywhere

And nowhere. Love's long lovely undersong,

A trace in time, a grace-note in the air,

Borne to us from the place where we belong

On every passing breeze and in the breath

Of every creature. All things hear and fear,

For faintly, through our fall, we too may hear

The strong song of the Son that undoes death.

And one day we will hear it unimpaired:

The joy of all the sorrowful, the song

Of all the saints who cry 'how long',

The hidden hope of all who have despaired.

He sang it to his mother in the womb

And now it echoes from his empty tomb..

from George Herbert's Prayer