Prayer
by Gail Peck
Please let me see
the cow’s big eyes
the goldenrod
the coffee in my cup
turning color with cream
all that the painters have made
stone sculpture in a field
family photographs
old letters
poems and stories
that funny looking bug
I can’t catch
how to read the clouds
if there’s a bee in the flower
I lean to
color of fruit
sheen of silk
what time it is
my bright painted toes
label on the wine bottle
I like to study
how full to pour my glass
words and words and words
and faces of those I love
yes mostly those
Comment: In the pastoral setting of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts I wrote “Prayer.” Each morning I’d walk through a pasture of cows and goldenrod. I was thinking of my mother who has macular degeneration and can no longer see to read or write. I know how the visual world feeds all artists. I don’t write many “list” poems, but this one asserted itself and seemed right. I wrote of what I love, fear, and hope for, all with a sense of gratitude for the present.
Wild Goose Poetry Review 
This seems to me to be one of those poems whose simplicity is entirely spurious. I love its complexity and the evocativeness of the items in the list.
before I read your comment, I was thinking of how wonderfully visual especially this one: the coffee in my cup turning color with cream
The supplication is “let me see . . . ,” and the poem then answers the prayer for us the readers. Not just a list but a path of enlightenment, opening our eyes to the significance of small things. I keep coming back to “the funny looking bug / I can’t catch” — that one would even try speaks endearingly of the poet’s reverence for creation. And isn’t the prime purpose of prayer to instill reverence? This poem succeeds.