let anything that clasps offer the kind of prayer it wants to pray

To Max Ritvo, who once said to me: 

"I can't think of anything I could 

disqualify as the spiritual centerpiece of a poem. 

I don't think the spiritual world 

needs to be claimed or reclaimed by anyone or anything. 

Let religions lay hands upon it. 

Let secularity lay hands upon it. 

But let the hands be gently laid. 

Let anything that clasps 

offer the kind of prayer it wants to pray. 

Let this all be poetry." 

 

Let this all be poetry. 

 

Today I wanted to tell you that this morning 

my oldest daughter said she loves the sound of when 

I write a poem. 

What sound? I ask. 

The wood pencil scratching 

against the paper, she says. 

 

I didn't know I made a sound when I wrote poems, 

and that sound made me want to speak with you. 

 

[Sarah Ruhl {1974- } 'To Max Ritvo, who once said to me', from Love Poems in Quarantine]