Prayer for Empty Hands

Give me strength
In these two hands
To do what I must do.

Give me the strength
To fulfill the demands
Of a writer's task. Renew

Again and again at length
The weakening bands
Of mind and body. View

With grace my empty strength,
And fill these hands
With bread, to make a new

Body in this old length
Of flesh. Fill these hands
With words like wine, true

Writer's blood. By the length
And breadth of grace, by the hands
Whose holes proclaim true

Strength, I plead for strength.
Give into my weary hands
The grace to do what I must do.


After being sick for two weeks and missing more school than I've ever missed in my life, I have work to do. A full weekend and week and month of it ahead.