Thirty-Six Prayers

When in conflict,
within the spirit and with the earth,
with mortality and what is immortal,
may we take action
that brings peaceful resolutions
to these plots
of our human drama.

From wherever may come deliverance
provide timely rescue for the unfortunate,
destitute, threatened or mistreated
clothed in rags and sheltered in cardboard.

Inspire the imagination
of any unlucky child
born from every victim of misfortune
who suffers at the hands
of inherited cruelty.

In times of revenge,
served up blind, cold and sweet,
forgive the avenger
who always arrives a day late
and a dollar short
to still the hard heart
of the empty handed criminal.

Consider the careless acts
of fatal imprudence
that allow the fateful volunteer
to find and then lose
the object of their faith.

Make young lovers beware
of the involuntary crimes of love,
both those of the lover
and of the beloved,
so not to embrace too urgently
and miss what is revealed
in the embracing.

Avert the gaze of any brother
who would kill unrecognized
his brother
and let that victim see
his own brother revealed.

Guard all
both our abductor
and we the abducted,
see us safely through
this terrifying dance.

Show the self-righteous pursuer
an alternate method,
and a middle path,
when in hunt of the furtive outlaw
from their justified punishment.

Give voice to justice
in the remorse of the culprit
in the rage and pain of the victim
and the woeful irony
of the successful detective.

Open the hand of every
brother and sister,
father or mother,
who has in any manner taken
vengeance upon one another.

Diminish the guilt of each
relative to all
so they may once
sit down together
in quiet respect.

And if caught in familial hatred
allow each the compassion
to simply hate each other
without spoiling every meal.

And if fouled in family rivalry
let the preferred
and the rejected
sit across from each other
without the object of their avarice
between them.

Leave an empty chair,
or two,
for the loved ones lost,
and those slain.
Fill our glass to witness
this too familiar love.

Give those vanquished
and the victorious
insight to know the difference
between disaster
and tragedy,
and to hear the truthfulness
of the messenger
even when the message is a lie.

When the object of power holds
that there are those
that are superior and others inferior,
then let each know to share
what joins the two.

Remove the burden of greed
from the ambitious person
their competition
and their daring enterprise,.

Bring success to any revolution
that puts out any tyrant
and reveals all shadowed conspirators,
wrong or right.

Make simple our goal,
make wise our bold leader
and our adversary
so that we then
have no need to fight.

Provide a ready arbitrator
who may direct a fair reciprocity
for these opposing parties.

For those that commit to self sacrifice
for an ideal,
first make certain there is a need
for an ideal action
before any person must be so sacrificed.

For those that commit to self-sacrifice
for community,
make certain there is a community
and that a hero is required
before any person or thing
is sacrificed that may serve better not.

When there is an urgency
to sacrifice one loved
let the loved hero
and beloved victim,
understand this and then choose not.

When all is sacrificed for passion
let there remain a measure
of compassion
for those so charged and the sacrificed.

During the moment of adulterous embrace
disarm the anguish
of the deceived.

In the horror
of murderous adultery
give pause to this displaced passion
and and a moment to consider
its terrible consequence.

With discovery
of the dishonor of one loved,
examine first
our own heart
and then the guilty one.

Remove the absurd obstacles
for true lovers
when gullible, naïve, betrayed
and kept apart
for the sake of the obstacle itself.

When an enemy is loved
remove with care
the hateful obstacles
that mine the path
of beloved enemies.

In the agony and confusion
of mistaken jealousy
unchain the jealous
from the object of jealousy,
and the accomplice
from the guilty author.

Within crimes of love,
and with the extinction of love,
for the lover,
for the beloved,
find the grace note
in this dissolution of love.

In the nightmare of madness
awaken the mad
and give some rest
to all victims of their madness,
including themselves.

Restore our senses
to allow the recovery
of all those memories
thought lost,
and our vision
with each one found.

And if we author our story
with errors and mistakes
or through faulty judgement
leave behind characters
filled with regret
provide us great dialogue.


Stuart Cudlitz
New York City

12/21/02
01/12/03