<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 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Almost a Prayer<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">I am haunted by color,<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">I breathe it in as if it were air<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">I wash myself in it like water<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">I walk in it saying<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Oh sunset rub off on me<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Oh soil may I be brown like you,<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">May I be red clay or white sand!<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">May my laugh be yellow<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">My sadness indigo <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">My suffering coal black,<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Or searing white ash,<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">my love intense carmine or subtle<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">pastels not yet named.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">As I have lived I have learned<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">that the daily invocation of <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">color arises with the light, <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">companion of the sun, and<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">night’s mysterious underside.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">O, name that can never be spoken, <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">your rainbows appear unasked, <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">more present than meditation, <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">more healing than prayer. <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">So let this temple though it exists <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">in the midst of so much suffering<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">be a ceremony, and<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">a baptism into you by color.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Judith St</span>one</div></div></body></html>