Poem February 1, 1982 Issue

Prayer for letting go

DORIS KERNS QUINN

The letting go's the thing—not what we say:
"It's your life, your decision, your career.."
Easy words. More difficult to pray
Beneath that calm, magnanimous veneer:
"Father, I'm letting go of this Your child;
I know this child was never strictly mine.
You, the wise Father, You, the Mother mild,
You are the One to make the light to shine
Upon the path. My guidance could be wrong.
But You will point the way that's clean and straight,
And if that way seems darkly strange, Your song
Will be there in the night. I'll trust and wait.
The letting go's the thing that I must do—
Completely trusting this Your child to You."