Prepare the way for Love,
make straight a path for the Holy One.
—Luke 3.4
Enough of your junk drawer clutter
bucket of old used punctuation
heartthrob amusement ride of distraction.
Prayer is a snow shovel.
You plow it all aside. All of it.
Clear a space.
Admit it: your heart is a hoarder.
Clean out your piety’s basement.
You don’t build the way, don’t accrue it.
You empty it.
Rough made smooth, crooked made straight,
busy made empty.
Empty it all.
Silence the noise, the chorus, the committee,
the crowd.
The empty place is not long, stretching away.
It’s just right there, around you,
a circle of light,
empty air,
silence—not what you hear,
but how you listen,
what you practice.
Silence.
Now there’s a way.
Wait.
For the Coming One,
who speaks silence,
who blesses the emptiness,
the Presence
who is the negative space itself
where you’ve made room
for a little friendliness.
—December 5, 2018