Morning Prayer

Thanks again for the 7:42,

Grand Central bound,

with its grumpy engines

and proper wake-up bells.

Some mornings, sitting before

the blank page, screen, desk,

I wonder:

Did You ever consider

giving up?

I mean, after two

or three days of Creation,

while nobody was looking,

you must have considered it.

After light. After oceans.

After fishes, trees.

After birds, vineyards, the

creepy-crawlies.

After thunder and asparagus.

Did You ever think?

Nobody will care.

Nobody will buy it.

Nobody will ever return my calls,

messages, texts!

I, for one,

would completely understand,

if you had.

What if You really did give up?

What if seven days was really just the middle?

That might explain a few things, actually:

Reality TV, for example. Albany.

Plastic packaging that cuts our fingers.

Congress. Those crazies with eight kids.

But, I do not think You quit.

I think You said:

“Don’t let perfect ruin good.”

And so, here we are,

at another Beginning.

Amen.


Dedicated to Twyla Tharp and Tim Brown, whose books about the creative process have been so helpful and encouraging; and to Harry Beckwith, business writer/speaker extraordinaire for the "perfect" line.