Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A PRAYER OF THE PEOPLES, by PERCY MACKAYE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A PRAYER OF THE PEOPLES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: God of us who kill our kind!
Last Line: We, who pray, ourselves are fate.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace
Subject(s): God; Prayer Meetings; Religion; Soul; Theology


GOD of us who kill our kind!
Master of this blood-tracked Mind
Which from wolf and Caliban
Staggers toward the star of Man —
Now, on Thy cathedral stair,
God, we cry to Thee in prayer!

Where our stifled anguish bleeds
Strangling through Thine organ reeds,
Where our voiceless songs suspire
From the corpses in Thy choir —
Through Thy charred and shattered nave,
God, we cry on Thee to save!

Save us from our tribal gods!
From the racial powers, whose rods —
Wreathed with stinging serpents — stir
Odin and old Jupiter
From their ancient hells of hate
To invade Thy dawning state.

Save us from their curse of kings!
Free our souls' imaginings
From the feudal dreams of war;
Yea, God, let us nevermore
Make, with slaves' idolatry,
Kaiser, king or czar of Thee!

We who, craven in our prayer,
Would lay off on Thee our care —
Lay instead on us Thy load;
On our minds Thy spirit's goad,
On our laggard wills Thy whips
And Thy passion on our lips!

Fill us with the reasoned faith
That the prophet lies, who saith
All this web of destiny,
Torn and tangled, cannot be
Newly wove and redesigned
By the Godward human mind.

Teach us, so, no more to call
Guidance supernatural
To our help, but — heart and will —
Know ourselves responsible
For our world of wasted good
And our blinded brotherhood.

Lord, our God! to whom, from clay,
Blood and mire, Thy peoples pray —
Not from Thy cathedral's stair
Thou hearest: — Thou criest through our prayer
For our prayer is but the gate:
We, who pray, ourselves are fate.





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