Answered Prayers

After “Answered Prayers” by David Sylvian

“There are only two things in life, one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

Oscar Wilde

Prayers fall like snow;

Crystalline, delicate, individual the voicing of millions;

All that spiritual energy

Blown into drifts

Beneath a chilled and distant sky.

Kind thoughts sent to the mother of a slain preschooler,

No further action is required.

Wishing to someone life, who is trapped in meaningless pain and boredom.

Romantic love toward an unworthy object.

Real world affects, physical and psychological,

From god the servant

From god the vending machine

From god the concierge;

Pity and support and love

That are never voiced elsewise.

So many many prayers swirling.

A precious dance of snow

Thoughtfully descending through naked tree branches,

Be careful with that language

Like the brush of a butterfly’s wing, each one has the ability

To stir the world.

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What is there left to say about Marc Janssen? Maybe, his verse is scattered around the world in places like Pinyon, Orbis, Pure Slush, Cirque Journal, and Poetry Salzburg also in his book November Reconsidered. Janssen coordinates the Salem Poetry Project and keeps getting nominated for Oregon Poet Laurate.