Peter Steele: praying

Another text on prayer. This is "Praying", by the Australian poet-priest Peter Steele – from his collection, White Knight with Beebox (2008):

Sometimes it feels like Jimmy Durante calling

goodnight to Mrs Calabash, whoever

she was or whether. Sometimes it's the tenth

hour in the trans-Pacific plane,

all glamour gone and connections still to make.

and it's been known to turn dirty,

as if a cutter, back from the peat-hag, found

his ass's pannier loaded with nothing.

But whistling in the dark, as the poet said,

is good practice for whistling, so

one goes on doing it and cognate things,

knowing a little and holding out

for a touch of what shows in the eyes of the old

hands at the business, their voices surrendered,

a better than Boeing winging their hopes, the laden

flesh beginning to take fire.