Wanton Prayer

What is more permanent--my poem or prayer?
One has God's ear, but heard no other place;
a poem could be inspiring everywhere,
prompting some influence, if not the grace.

Prayer has an audience of One,
unless we count the Trinity as three,
and do the saints and angels count as none?
Of course, their only power is God's decree.

Could not a poem help one's eternal soul?
Yet what God can do with a prayer He hears!
And poems tossed wantonly die, on the whole;
prayers last forever, poems at best some years.

O God, take all my wanton poetry,
and turn it to a prayer from wanton me.

                                 -- by Pete Voelz       5/06