An Artist's Prayer

God in the hot encaustic wax
God in the paint and the palette knife
And God in the whimsical blog post
And God on the wall at Facebook --

Tender with with every foible:
Our cyber-self-promotion
Our private doubting and fearing
Our just not hearing


Architect, poet and author, cantor
Dwelling among us
Warming the room
(God the warp and the weft
The yarn and the loom)

I praise Your presence in the strangest places --
You who dance with the pixels,
Defining that elusive spot
Where poet and pointillist meet

I feel Your hand move mine about the keyboard
And pour myself once more
Into your great safekeeping

Relinquishing map and blueprint
Renouncing all planning and trying
(Can this be dying?)

I come to rest
In that inchoate space
That nameless grace
Beyond description

Acknowledging who moves the brush, the pen
Across each pristine page
Who sings the notes just audibly enough
For our transcription

I cede You all of me:
Each dark insomniac question,
The ego’s tedious whine
The motley fears, the bad digestion
My reconstructed spine 
All that I thought was mine
 
Abba, Ima, Midwife, Maker,
Endless compassion streaming in
Calming sustenance above the din
Melech ha’ olam, Ruach ha'olam,  
Empathic Rabbi, sweet Kwan Yin

I cannot count the times
You found me supine, flailing
Besieged and set upon
Despairing, failing

And raised me gently to my feet
And choreographed my journey on.

                             Elizabeth Rasche Gonzalez