Bathing in Prayer in Bali

image by Kohji Asakawa from Pixabay

Two splendid voices from the Temple,
intone at 4 AM for an hour.
Can a human have
any prayer but this?
In the clear stream of their singing
I drift, and petals seem to float around me.
There is one sound
of sadness and praise,
begging for mercy
and offering a waterfall of gratitude
for the gift of life.

I hear the long songs
sung to listening ancestors.
Another being in need,
I float in their lifted prayers,
flowers of song to beings unseen..
The litany seems to have no end
like our needs, our needs.
The singing continues
until limits are lost.
The singing is always
going on, present
like waves of the sea that do not stop
loving the shore.

The voices bathe me
with the mothering sound of their hands.
I open my own petals,
spread my arms and legs
wide in receiving.
The healing surrounds me
penetrates the skin of my fears,
I become a baby
born into the waters of the song
borne along
by the waters of the song
to a place of infinite trust.

There is only one prayer.
This only one prayer
calls out all our human wantings
long before dawn,
and wakes me from my first sleeping
in Bali. In Bali.
Lying down, listening,
my first night in Bali,
I take my place
in the praying family of earthlings.

©Susa Silvermarie 2024