Prayer for Peace by Joseph Jablonski, Listener Poet

Origin Story

For this patient, peace is the most important hope for her life, for it to “come into fruition.” Recently, she found her peace disturbed at a lunch with two longtime friends, one of whom has been her friend for nearly sixty years. This patient tells me she suddenly found herself in a hostile environment, all because she had arrived a few minutes late. While she and her friends eventually prayed over the situation to calm the tension, she was left with doubt and uneasiness about her connection with these two people. For many years, this patient has avoided confrontation in pursuit of peace.

She recently realized she needed inner assertiveness to keep genuine peace, especially within herself. Words of art and faith also bring her peace. She tells me how she keeps a journal and how reading is a place of comfort. She even writes poetry herself. Ultimately, this wish for peace is more like a prayer. Describing herself as a spiritual person, she asked God to bring peace in her life with her family and especially her friends.

Joseph Jablonski, Listener Poet
Inova Schar Cancer Institute
August 2024

Prayer for Peace

By Joseph Jablonski, Listener Poet

Hurt people hurt people’s
Prayerful hands unable to hold,
I never wanted to be bold
But I realized
A peace passive isn’t
A spirit-moving thing.

I am more than a shell,
To me there is more to tell,
So I scrambled the words
Waiting in my soul,

War a weary thing,
A gamble at best believing conquest
Can force belief upon us

But I a lamb, turning cheeks,
Help you see, help you be.

I can speak strongly too,
Reading rooms and words carefully,

So I balance this,
Bluntness in thoughtfulness,
A patience to persist
In the offense.

And become a medicine of empathetic
Awareness making things different,

We cannot go back not a time for that,

How we say
Is the way
I now pray

No matter the result, the intention
I give to the Lord in pleas
Is for the drama to cease.

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