Jorie Graham - Prayer

Over a dock railing, I watch the minnows, thousands, swirl themselves, each a minuscule muscle, but also, without the way to create current, making of their unison (turning, re- infolding, entering and exiting their own unison in unison) making of themselves a visual current, one that cannot freight or sway by minutest fractions the water's downdrafts and upswirls, the dockside cycles of finally-arriving boat-wakes, there where they hit deeper resistance, water that seems to burst into itself (it has those layers) a real current though mostly invisible sending into the visible (minnows) arrowing motion that forces change-- this is freedom. This is the force of faith. Nobody gets what they want. Never again are you the same. The longing is to be pure. What you get is to be changed. More and more by each glistening minute, through which infinity threads itself, also oblivion, of course, the aftershocks of something at sea. Here, hands full of sand, letting it sift through in the wind, I look in and say take this, this is what I have saved, take this, hurry. And if I listen now? Listen, I was not saying anything. It was only something I did. I could not choose words. I am free to go. I cannot of course come back. Not to this. Never. It is a ghost posed on my lips. Here: never. - Jorie Graham      This poem, to me, starts off with her watching waves and sort of analyzing them. She takes the movemoents and actions of the waves and compares them to hard times of life. Graham uses the “unity” of minnows forming a “current”, to show that change in inevitable and it is something that she hopes to stay away from. Just as unity conforms the “minnows”, even that togetherness cannot prevent change in the world, it in inevitable and even nature must conform to that notion. When I first read this poem, I felt that it was entitled, “Prayer”, because she was so devastated and frustrated by change that she needed to look to a higher power to help her overcome her difficulties with the world. I thought that she looked to prayer, for god created the minnows and the nature surrounding her and the changes occuring within her world, therefore she would need the stability and calm that only a spiritual hope can achieve. However, while reading this poem a second time I got a completely different meaning. I felt her new message was that faith and change are both forced upon you. I get the feeling that she feels “trapped” because even faith can trap you and “change” your beliefs against your will. The main part of the poem that completely changed my view was when she stated, “motion that forces change—this is freedom. This is the force of faith. Nobody gets what they want. Never again are you the same.The longing is to be pure. What you get is to be changed”. I feel that she wants her own beliefs to remain intact, not the “faith” and the beliefs of others. I still feel that she is against change, but maybe in this case it is dealing with a change in her beliefs rather than change in general. I find it very interesting that she has such abstract yet meaningful poetry that I can find two completely different meanings from this poem. That is true talent.