WHERE DO PRAYERS GO?

If you learned how to worry, you know how to pray
And you likely do both each day.
You know worry gets you nowhere,
about that there is nothing more to say.
But when you pray, sins and cares
seem to pass away--but do they?

The prayers you use, some old, some new
some are about others, some are about you,
some are long and loud so they can be heard far away,
or doesn’t it work that way?
Silent prayers and thoughts too---are they heard?
That no one can say.

But it wasn’t always this way.
There was a time when sins were in fashion
and sacrifices were the only means of redemption
Animal rituals were the preferred route
to judgment day,
although sometimes sinners themselves were made to pay,
as when Abraham offered his only son as prey.

Around the Common Era (70 C.E.),
praying was first adopted to atone for human frailty
Yanneh, a rabbinical cabala synod,
decreed that civility trumped sacrifices, and
morality was more than archetypical rituals
that passed for religious legality.
That was when praying, a benign form of begging,
replaced animal and human sacrifices; the voodoo of
that day, and.
so the culture changed for good. by way
Soon after, Jesus was the last sacrifice for the sins of man.
Afterward praying became the new talisman.

But prayers came with a new price.
They were unstructured, disorganized, rambling,
often failed to deliver, and were misused.
Prayers were written to atone for every known vice,
They came in many flavors-- repetitive, petitioning, ritualistic,
meditative, intercessory, collaborative, and colloquial
atonements, socially acceptable and perfuse.


Changes from physicality to spirituality was the new
psychology that enhanced life by illusion and fantasy
all without contrition, embarrassment or apology—
a cultural conundrum!

The daunting struggle continued by uncovering truths
and casting them away to the ethers.
It included confession to reduce life stresses,
and required daily conditioning from childhood on,
until it was haunting.

So many prayers are not answered; the failure rate is high
Sometimes it seems all that remains is to pray a lie:
(A Parable)
A young boy prayed each night for a new bike,
but nothing happened that he liked,
so he stole one and prayed for forgiveness,
while riding a new bike.

The challenge is to preserve a culture, which evolved from brutality to intimacy whereby prayers pursue problems,
but are often polluted by problems pursuing prayers.

Prayers and meditation reside in the same mind,
and need faith to reconcile the human and spiritual needs of mankind.
Praying is noisy, faith is silent, and each is mutually exclusive yet together are gentle to the point of sedation.
It matters not the length, speed or intensity of each,
their catharsis goes to the furthest reach of the ether
in tandem with a cacophony of all other worldly sounds,
any one of which is capable of murdering the hope they promise,
by canceling prayers from closed eyes and open mouths.

But what if there is not more to life than living it?
Then the secret is out, the mystery is over!
A new liturgical fabric will be needed
or mankind will again roam blindly to atone.
What new process awaits us for condoning and atoning?
Can a poem, a poem in harmony with the universe better express
our most intimate thoughts, and fulfill our needs
with its every verse?
In time, poets and poetry may remain to direct the only
stream of consciousness left to mankind forevermore here on Earth.
Thank God, I’m an Atheist!