We Are Thanking the Lord

Matins

Now we are awake
and now we are come together
and now we are thanking the Lord.

This is easy,
for the Lord is everywhere.

God is in the water and the air,
God is in the very walls.

God is around us and in us.
God is the floor on which we kneel.

We make our songs for God
as sweet as we can

for God's goodness,
and, lo, God steps into the song

and out of it, having blessed it,
having recognized our intention,
having awakened us, who thought we were awake,
a second time,
having married us in the air and water,

having lifted us in intensity,
having lowered us in beautiful amiability,

having given us
each other,
and the weeds, dogs, cities, boats, dreams
that are the world. 

What Do We Know: Poems and Prose Poems by Mary Oliver

From A Place For Prayer, November 25, 2011