







Earth Prayer
Farewell to the Earth
Mother, your earth no longer lives
beneath my feet
to walk upon with dignity.
Bless your poppies, roses,
morning glories
Velvet flower petals nestling
Birds with singing wings
And tree roots drinking from your
deep brown breast.
From new heights I am on my way
And my soul sings along the wake
of a new and glorious dawn.
__Joan Englander ©2024
Fire Prayer
Farewell to the Flames
I give to you
Beloved Mystery
All that I have been
And sing for joy
As you heal now
every shadow, dissolve
every dark cloud
separating me from you
I say farewell to wildness
the flames of creativity
falling in love, dancing
Still I continue to savor
eternal longing
to unite with your Love
O my Beloved remove
The veil
if only for a moment
That I may see
your luminous Face
the Love I long to fully know
Pour into me once more
That very love you gave me
Before I was born.
The fire is surely dying.
Holy ashes of my
former self, buried
Out of this life I go
With fresh new beginnings.
_Joan Englander ©2024
Water Prayer
Farewell to Sacred Waters
Back to the sea
Grace follow me
Back to the source
These holy waters flee.
Back to the person
Who once was me
Now safe, now free
In the arms of our
Mother sea.
Back to moving waters
Lullabies of wavelets
flowing all around
quiet rhythms
lift me slow
upon this ocean’s calm
Floating on our Mother Sea
her heart washes clean
all fears, doubts, regrets.
I cling to no thing
Except
her breast of Love.
_Joan Englander ©2024
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Air Prayer
Dying into Mystery
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Part 1
O beloved air so soft
Sweetly perfuming
My entire being
One last time.
During my lifespan
your crisp clean air
embraced all of me
I forgot to give you
My thanksgiving.
You were always there
In storms at sea
In a breathing sky
In calm symphonies of stars
And now I leave
While I know you
never leave me
You cause my ashes
To breathe a new song.
You anoint my comings
goings with blessing.
Part 2
Faint is my breath
I will not fear
this slow quiet silence
like the sun setting
into the sea, into me
Peace abiding between
one breath and the next.
I know what I know.
Soft as a cloud
Breath beyond whisper
No thought dwells.
I am dying into mystery
Flying on wingless breath
into the Beyond
Beloved near and nearer still
into the great immensity
this life is ending.
Part 3
Who can see where this life goes?
Who can know its wordless travel?
What can be its life tomorrow?
I will not fear.
My breath goes and I become
An unknown spark
in the air of space
Let the sacred whisper
carry me.
_Joan Englander ©2024
​
Space Prayer
Eternal Belonging
I am married to vastness.
Drifting freely in space
I belong.
Whatever moves through
centuries
whatever shall come to be
I am part of this life-giving
stream
A spark of light moving
through space
Basking in wide expanses
bathed in blue and gold
I have shed my body
my thoughts
what I was
or might have become.
Steeped in quietude
no me, no you
no obligations
nothing left to attain
gain or lose
Without form I am free
To unite in spirit
with all the sparks
of strangers and friends
continents and cultures
In this vast blue eternity
I am what I cannot see
I am what I cannot hear
I am what I cannot know or taste
I am married to infinite space
Floating through the cosmos
Newly awakened
For now I truly belong.
Joan Englander ©2024
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