Poem: Prairie Prayers

By Allen McGrew

Keen-eyed at dusk,

the owl o’er the prairie glides

as though on the wings of prayer,

and the prayer she prays is

a prayer for prey.

And the prey?

Furtively, he through the tall grass slides

like the rustling wind of the breath of God,

and he, too, prays a prayer,

and the prayer he prays

is also a prayer for the prey.

But which pray-er’s prayer

will be answered today–

the prayer of the preyer

or the prayer of the prey?

And what of we who walk at dusk,

with footfalls soft and tones of hush,

to see the owl, the prey, the setting sun,

and thus to watch our day be done?

Have we not, too, a prayer to raise?

And may our prayer be grateful praise.

Allen McGrew is a QEW Steering Committee Representative for Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting, clerk of QEW’s Mini-Grant Working Group, worships with Dayton Friends, and is a professor at the University of Dayton.