From “In the Shelter”
by PÁDRAIG Ó TUAMA
Neither I nor the poets I love found the keys to the kingdom of prayer
and we cannot force God to stumble over us where we sit.
But I know that it’s a good idea to sit anyway.
So every morning I sit, I kneel, waiting,
making friends with the habit of listening,
hoping that I’m being listened to.
There, I greet God in my own disorder.
I say hello to my chaos, my unmade decisions,
my unmade bed, my desire
and my trouble. I say hello to distraction and privilege,
I greet the day
and I greet my beloved and bewildering Jesus.
I recognise and greet my burdens, my luck,
my controlled and uncontrollable story.
I greet my untold stories, my unfolding story,
my unloved body, my own love, my own body.
I greet the things I think will happen
and I say hello to everything I do not know about the day.
I greet my own small world
and I hope that I can meet the bigger world that day.
I greet my story and hope that I can forget my story during the day,
and hope that I can hear some stories,
and greet some surprising stories during the long day ahead.
I greet God,
and I greet the God who is more God than the God I greet.
Hello to you all, I say, as the sun rises above the chimneys of North Belfast.
Hello.
(from the book In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World)