<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Late Night Prayer</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Within this silence may a true voice dawn</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">as smoothly as the heron flies, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the wings unfold from that slender silhouette</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and a great power is unfurled.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">This still form can transform itself into flight -</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">So can we all.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">May out of this quiet time come wisdom.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">May in this silence emerge sound.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">May this sound hold the secret of many things, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the balm to soothe our torment, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the elixir to lift us out of the slime.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We are stuck in the muck,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">our shoes too heavy to lift us out</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">we need a miracle.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We need a spirit like a </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Great Blue Heron </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">picking us out of this quagmire</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">like the stork delivers the baby </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to its eagerly awaiting parents--</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">parents ready to spill out love to their</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">long awaited child, as if that child</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">were all the children of this earth.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Deliver us oh great spirit, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">heal this wound that bleeds into the sky</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">turning it yellow, turning it red,.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We are inside the earth’s blister – </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a yellow orange oozing from our pain, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">slipping out of our hands</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">out of our control.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We have nothing left.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Please heal us, make us whole</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">allow our sincere wish </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to push away the clouds and smoke</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">allow our words to spread wings </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to billow out like giant cumulus white </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">clouds with edges definition clarity</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">against a blue sky</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Allow our words our wishes our hopes</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to stretch out their arms</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">like the wings of the heron as she lifts her great long body off the earth </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">as if it were nothing.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">nothing but a thought</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a wish </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a hope</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">for blue skies.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Basha</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: right; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div></div></body></html>