Prayer for an Ordinary Word Not Yet Found

My body beseeches you:
Find it a word that is like ordinary wood,
like hands that are charred and as bare as our ancestors,
like the innocence of all the first prayers ever prayed.
For such a word, my body beseeches you.

My body beseeches you:
Find it a word that—as soon as it’s said as a cry—
the blood starts to ache without knowing why,
and looks for a channel in which it can flow.
For such a word, my body beseeches you.

Find it such a word, a word that is true,
that is like all the quiet captives held fast
by that soft wind, that southern breeze
which awakens the little deer in our eyes.
Find it such a word, a word that is true.

Find it a word of birth, of wailing,
find such a word. And this temple, locked
in its ancientness and large from waiting,
will open to you humbly, of its own accord.
Find it a word of birth, of wailing.