Perhaps you need a “Perseverance Prayer”
Here’s a poem that I offer as a prayer for my own weary heart, and for all who long for the opportunity to do what they do best.
This morning, as we rose from our pillows like the survivors of some kind of crash, world-weary and wondering if perhaps today, unlike any other recent days, we might be granted time for peace, for rest, and for writing, Anne opened the book Unalone (Four Way Books, 2024) and read this Jessica Jacobs poem to me: “Perseverance Prayer." (Follow the link and read the first poem on that page.)
In these few illuminating lines, I found an image of my restless heart, and I heard an echo of Babette from Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast:
“Throughout the world sounds one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me the chance to do my very best.”
In the last few weeks, I have been striving to find long stretches of time to write, to claim the hours necessary for storytelling, to dive deep into reflections on the great films and music I’ve experienced this year. And I have come up with only a few moments, here and there.
So my annual ritual of composing celebrations of the last year’s best offerings, and of thanking artists for the beauty they have revealed, has been canceled by circumstances beyond my control. (I am heading into what may be the most demanding academic quarter of my teaching experience yet, and I’ve been assigned to a team reviewing dozens and dozens of job applications for a new faculty hire.) I often despair that, for all of the decisions and the sacrifices I have made to establish a life where I can be, primarily, or even secondarily, a writer, it has led me only farther and farther from my destination. It’s not for lack of striving. Or for lack of prayer.
In 2026, I pray that all of us may know some of those hours, some of those days, where we have the joy of doing work we know that we were made to do.
And now, I’m going to read that poem again.