Attention Prayer Print

THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE ART:

I originally made the snake to go with an Emily Dickinson poem called, A Narrow Fellow In The Grass. I may still finish that print with the Dickinson text but it felt right to use it here too. The cat is an image that I use often. The bird was created specifically for this piece after I chose the Mary Oliver poem.

In some ways this poem is very simple and obvious and the title explains it all. A practical guide: When we focus and become alert and ready, we are actually praying for something and we have a good chance of finding that thing.

It’s more than that, though. Our communion with God, or in this case, nature, happens not when we recite specific words but when we actually, deeply, marvel at nature. We express our thankfulness and our reverence by watching it unfold and really paying attention to it. In this way, we express our thankfulness and “say grace” when we pay attention to the true needs of our body; When we notice our hunger and then eat, when we do things with awareness and attention.

In fact, the Hawk is himself praying for food with his “green glass” eyes, and then he’s provided with food. 

Here’s the poem, which is the same as the text written in the print:

The Real Prayers Are Not The Words, But the Attention That Comes First

The little hawk leaned sideways and, tilted, 

rode the wind.  Its eye at this distance looked 

like green glass; its feet were the color 

of butter.  Speed, obviously, was joy.  But 

then, so was the sudden, slow circle it carved 

into the slightly silvery air, and the 

squaring of its shoulders, and the pulling into 

itself the sharp-edged wings, and the 

falling into the grass where it tussled a moment, 

like a bundle of brown leaves, and then, again, 

lifted itself into the air, that butter-color 

clenched in order to hold a small, still 

body, and it flew off as my mind sang out oh 

all that loose, blue rink of sky, where does 

it go to, and why?

Mary Oliver