Prayers for the Temple Within

Excerpt from

Louise Hart

Published by

Sirius Publications

www.sirius-books.com

No part of this publication may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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ISBN 1-930889-38-0

Dedicated to Lillian,

Friend, Mentor and Spiritual Guide.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Poet, author and photojournalist Louise Hart has been writing since she was five years of age and has been published since she was thirteen. A former educator and journalist, she was named Poet Laureate of Greater Lawrence by the Greater Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

Hart is both a versatile and prolific writer. To date, she has completed over thirty books. Her works range from illustrated metaphysical imagistic poetry to non-fiction, fiction, essays, cookbooks and children’s books. Some of her other works include: The Book of Trees, volumes I through IV, On the Death of Love and other poems, Mill Girls and Their Daughters, Tales of a City Maid, September 2001: In Memoriam, New Poems 2002, Haunted House Diary, Racer’s Edge and other stories, The Boy Who Knew and other stories, the Valley Gourmet: Adventures in Food A to Z (mini cookbook series), Grandma’s Book of Recipes and Helpful Hints, How to Start an E-Business – On and Off the Net, How To Read Cards, Holiday Stories, A Hart-y Laugh at U.S., the Ashley Stories and What Does a Tick Sound Like?

A native of Massachusetts, she is a graduate of Boston University, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and Harvard University. She completed the Institute in Economic and Housing Development at Tufts University and attended law school.

Introduction

Prayers for the Temple Within is a collection of imagistic prayer poems by poet Louise Hart. The prayers are non-denominational and have, in fact, been read from the pulpit of and enjoyed by those of many faiths. Incorporating the universalities of monotheism, the inspired metaphysical poems explore and pay homage to the Universal Force, Idea Genesis, Omega Point, Creator, God power that unites and flows through all of us. The language of the prayers is drawn from both current and ancient religions and as much from everyday life as from science and theology for truth knows no sect or divisions. There is, the poet maintains, no aspect of our lives in which we cannot experience and know the power that created us. We are one with it as it is a part of us.

The images are similarly drawn from both classic religions and from everyday modern life. Throughout the work, the poet seeks to achieve a unity of spirit not by escape from the realities of life or the world, but rather, from heightened sensitivity to and embracing the world without and within.

The poems use a variety of poetic formats or forms to allow for the individual preferences of the readers. They are not offered as sacred text, but rather, as an expression of individual reverence and worship.

Consistent with the major themes of the work that each individual can seek and find the God power that links us all within as without, above as below, the illustrations provided with the prayer poems have similarly been drawn from the poet’s environment. Some focus on the world of nature; others on the world created by man for as the prayers suggest, the dialogue between the Creator and created is on-going, becoming and never ending. Worship is not confined to a single space. Whether shared with another or known and effected only by an individual alone, every act and every thought is a communication of our being, an act of our worship and reverence for both what we have been given and what we are. The photographs, like the word images incorporated in the text, seek to not only capture the spirit of the prayers, but also, to assist readers in their meditation, contemplation and acceptance of man’s and each individual’s place in the universe and all creation.

All photographs included in this work were taken with a standard 35mm camera. No special lenses, filters or equipment were used and all photographs were developed by local commercial processors. The poet has done so to emphasize her message to readers that those seeking inner peace and the answers to life’s great questions will find them not in distant travels or somewhere out there, but rather, within their own lives, their own environment, their own souls. The majority of the photographs were taken within the poet’s own purview. A few of the photographs were taken while by the poet during automobile trips across the U.S. Again, however, the images are what anyone so traveling can see and experience. They are not beyond what each and every visitor to those regions can know. Some of the photographs although they may look different on first view are of the same subject but filmed at different angles or at different times. This, too, was deliberate on the part of the poet and consistent with the themes and ideas she raises in her works.

All photographic illustrations in this volume were taken by the poet with the exception of one taken by and dedicated to her son.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Prayers for the Temple within I

Prayers for the Temple within II

Prayers for the Temple within III

An Offering

Temples of Stone

Dancing Beauty

Communion

Within the Kingdom of Heaven

In the Zone

The Lesson of the Wind

On Viewing a Monet

Made in the Image

A Love Offering

In Supplication

A Call to Prayer

God Giveth the Increase

Thanksgiving

Free Will

Guidance

Reverent Vow

Let us make here a tabernacle

In the Light

A Child’s Prayer

Prayer for a Child

Evening Prayers I

III

Lesson of the Garden

A Sense of the Lord

The Rule

Lord Let Me Be As a Child

Creator Who Art in Heaven and in Me

The Natural State of Being

There is a Place for All

Prayer in Supplication

Charting Coordinates in Space and Time

Prayer for the Day

My God,

I am yours,

Born an infinitesimal part

Of you. A child created

In your image,

A muon in your universal cell,

I need thy loving parental guidance.

Come into me,

Guide me from within

That I may move

As compliantly

As Leaves

To a breeze.

They know innately

What I, your child,

Consciously

Must will to do

To be once more

A part of you,

To do your will

As the flowers do

In blooming

And bringing beauty

Into the world

For others to see

And feel as reassurance

Of your Love and Presence.

Creator of the Universe,

Creator of Me,

Help me to be once again

The child I was born to be,

Full of awe

And acceptance

Of the wonderment

Of your world;

Questioning

How everything works

And knowing that when I find out

I have but taken apart

The building blocks of another

Who is far greater

Than the sum

Of his Creations.

III

Patient Jesus

Who suffered so

To show us,

His brethren,

The way that we must go

If we are to know

Our father

And be once more

Before His throne,

Please walk with me

Through the shadowed woods

Of life

That my footsteps may not falter

From the pathway home.

An Offering

In love of You, my God,

Of whom I am but a part,

I take that ultimate step.

Like a tightrope walker

On a net less wire

Strung over

A rock-filled canyon,

I walk with head held high,

Looking only at my destination,

Trusting You to guide my steps,

My body’s every movement,

Your strength supports me,

Within as without,

In you is the balance

That sustains me

Until I reach

The other side.

Temples of Stone

Temples of stone,

Man’s expression

Of reverence,

Faith, obedience,

Power over landscape,

His ego, id, intelligence

Celebrated, exhibited

As much as His

Not requisite, needed,

Commanded, dictated

To know the Creator

Of the living temple

Made in his image

That we might ever wonder,

Search, study, and know

The complex, intricate harmony

That in the smallest of

Molecules, cells, nuclei is

A necessary element,

A builder, an integral part,

A sustainer of all life.

No particle, no matter

How small, seen or

Beyond all vision

Is ever lost.

Every electron, proton,

Neutron, DNA, RNA,

Black hole,

Exploding nova,

Exists as a temple,

A place to know,

Worship and experience Him.

Dancing Beauty

The beauty of a dancing leaf

Is not in how it bobs

In a summer breeze. No, its

Beauty lies in its movement

On the current of air

That stirs the leaf not just

To move, but rather, to sing

In harmony with the rush

Of air, its own being and neighboring

Leaves. All are perceived, heard,

Not as cacophony, but rather,

As one led by an Unseen Conductor

Who times and directs the music

With, through and in them

As S/he does with, through and in me.