The Poet: Edward Hirsch, "I Was Never Able To Pray"

"I Was Never Able To Pray"

"Wheel me down to the shore 

where the lighthouse was abandoned 

and the moon tolls in the rafters.

Let me hear the wind paging through the trees

and see the stars flaring out, one by one, 

like the forgotten faces of the dead.

I was never able to pray, 

but let me inscribe my name 

in the book of waves

and then stare into the dome 

of a sky that never ends 

and see my voice sail into the night."

- Edward Hirsch